glib

American  

[glib] / glɪb /

adjective

glibber, glibbest

1. readily fluent, often thoughtlessly, superficially, or insincerely so.

   a glib talker; glib answers.

   Synonyms:

   smooth, facile, loquacious, talkative

2. easy or unconstrained, as actions or manners.

3. Archaic. agile; spry.

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glib British  

/ ɡlɪb /

adjective

1. fluent and easy, often in an insincere or deceptive way

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Synonym Usage

See fluent.

Other Word Forms

• glibness
  noun
• unglib
  adjective
• glibly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of glib

First recorded in 1585–95; compare obsolete glibbery “slippery” (cognate with Dutch glibberig )

Explanation

A hiring manager might think you're being glib, or slick and insincere, if you say you've led a successful multinational corporation when you were actually in charge of flipping burgers for a fast-food restaurant chain. The word glib might be used to describe the slick car salesman who uses his polished sales pitch to talk his customers into buying lemons. In fact, the word comes from old German and Dutch words for "slippery," another word that could be used to describe the very same salesman. In addition to meaning "smooth" and "persuasive," glib can be applied to the kind of thoughtless comment that could get you into big trouble.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

glib glibber glibbest

Yet when he faced questions from the media last month - for the first time in over three years - his response was, at best, glib.

From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026

And you don’t want to be frivolous about it, you don’t want to be glib about it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026

So for his children not to show up in any way, and to be glib about his experience, is, well, a choice.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 22, 2026

The speakers are often ill-prepared and sometimes glib, demeaning what they should be illuminating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026

You can check if you’d like,’ and Sara thought I was being too glib, I suppose, because then she said she knew for a fact I’d hooked up with Alaska.

From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green

The comic is rife with details that will be familiar to even the most casual admirers of older, glibber incarnations of the Flintstones.

From Slate ● Apr. 12, 2017

Children of the U. S. can count glibly, "five pennies are a nickel, two nickels are a dime;" but children of the Irish Free State must become even glibber.

From Time Magazine Archive

Kaye is not naturally funny but more of a stunt-man of humor who relies on glib footwork, a glibber tongue and a foxy aptitude for facial contortions.

From Time Magazine Archive

An't she glibber to move nor a wag of a comet's tail, when he 's taking a lark round the moon?

From Confessions Of Con Cregan An Irish Gil Blas by Charles James Lever

I don't say I became glib at this juncture, but I certainly became a dashed glibber than I had been.

From Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

Raftery is one of TV sport’s glibbest analysts and there are dictionaries to explain his catchphrases.

From Washington Times ● May 19, 2017

That essay—by far the glibbest text I've ever written—chided American diplomats for not exploiting the immense digital soft power that a company like Amazon had to offer.

From Slate ● Jun. 21, 2012

And her gravelly, skeptical voice lends conviction to even the glibbest one-liners.

From New York Times ● May 20, 2010

A gathering of the best and the glibbest from 20 colleges?

From Time Magazine Archive

And now the Baboo passes into the godown, and receives from a score of servile cicars, glibbest of clerks, their several reports of the day's business.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 03, January, 1858 by Various

Related Words

• artful
• articulate
• eloquent
• facile
• loquacious
• talkative