a hooked prolongation that develops during the spawning season on the lower jaw of a male salmon or trout.
Machinery.
a thin, wedgelike strip of metal for controlling the area in which a moving part, as the table of a milling machine, slides.
a keylike part having a head at each end, used with a matching cotter as a fastening.
(in carpentry or ironwork) a heavy metal strap for fastening two members together.
a cat, especially a male cat.
a castrated cat.
First recorded in 1555–65; origin uncertain
1350–1400; Middle English gib ( be ), short for Gilbert proper name
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The sliding gib f is adjustable for wear.
From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua
“Why,” said John, “she say she do, but me no no; me no see she look much better; hab to pay plenty money tho’; Obeah no like it if yo no gib much.”
From Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume II (of 2) A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day by Anonymous
By thus acting in opposite directions the screws serve to check each other, holding the gib rigidly in place.
From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua
In other forms of rod a gib and key are used as well as two bolts.
From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua
Me gib you twenty, fousand, plenty, plenty brass rods!'
From Samba A Story of the Rubber Slaves of the Congo by Strang, Herbert
"He did in Gib.; and Addis; and at matins over the precentor."
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
Either we intend to go through Gib., or we will go straight north to Marseilles, well to the west of Sardinia.
From The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" by Davidson, George
And the antipodes of Gib. would be lat.
From The Airship "Golden Hind" by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
She never came down to Gib. that I know of, but the Major went back once or twice.
From Betty Grier by Waugh, Joseph Laing
I said we'd be in Gib. in an hour.
From The Airship "Golden Hind" by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
Amy Gardiner-Gibson, who also goes by the name Amu Gib, has joined three others in ending the strike after reportedly being taken to hospital.
From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2025
At least two other Texas prisons, the Gib Lewis Unit and the John B. Connally Unit, have their own version of the dungeon.
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2024
“It’s devastating to hear about another loss to North Atlantic right whales,” said Gib Brogan, a campaign director at Oceana, an international conservation group based in Washington.
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2024
“The government is proposing a significant improvement in protections for North Atlantic right whales today, which are constantly at risk from speeding vessels,” said Gib Brogan, a campaign director at Oceana.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 29, 2022
"He learned his English as a waiter in Gib."
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
This base has a slide way in which a gibbed slide carrying a head is free to travel longitudinally.
From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua
The carrier, upon which is mounted the driving spindle, is gibbed to the head, and has a vertical range sufficient to allow work 18 inches high to pass under centres.
From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua
The work table t is gibbed to slideways in f, and is provided with suitable automatic feed and stop motion, and of course with a hand feed also.
From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua
To the face of the standard is gibbed a sliding knee e.
From Modern Machine-Shop Practice, Volumes I and II by Rose, Joshua
Poor old Saxby was always anxious that no kind of"—Prescott gibbed at the word for a moment or two—"no kind of slur should be attached....
From Sinister Street, vol. 2 by MacKenzie, Compton
That little fella is in tune with all the world!" she declared; "but those people do be always gibbing and gabbing!
From Mount Music by Ross, Martin
A long-legged mule, after gibbing enough to satisfy his own self-respect, condescended to trot off with us up the tramway, which lay along a green drove strangely like one in the Cambridgeshire fens.
From At Last by Kingsley, Charles
Meanwhile the boat is plunging along through the water, the helm lashed or in beckets, and the skipper hard at work with a knife or gibbing mitt.
From American Merchant Ships and Sailors by Abbot, Willis J. (Willis John)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
