glib
Americanadjective
-
readily fluent, often thoughtlessly, superficially, or insincerely so.
a glib talker; glib answers.
- Synonyms:
- smooth, facile, loquacious, talkative
-
easy or unconstrained, as actions or manners.
-
Archaic. agile; spry.
adjective
Related Words
See fluent.
Other Word Forms
- glibly adverb
- glibness noun
- unglib adjective
Etymology
Origin of glib
First recorded in 1585–95; compare obsolete glibbery “slippery” (cognate with Dutch glibberig )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Braude is suitably critical of his subject for her sometimes glib approach to life-and-death matters, and he pegs her appeal as “delivering hard news as if it was light gossip.”
I don’t mean to sound trite or wilfully glib, but it’s merely the truth that every ending is followed by a beginning.
From Salon
When his “political enemy,” the glib and popular Alcibiades, sways the assembly, Nicias replies that this means sending both a fleet and “large numbers of land forces.”
When these got, it’s simple, it’s very painful, so I’m not being glib.
From Literature
Some on Wall Street view the wild swings of the past few days as proof that investors have grown too glib about trade risks.
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.
