jive
[jahyv]
- swing music or early jazz.
- the jargon associated with swing music and early jazz.
- Slang. deceptive, exaggerated, or meaningless talk: Don't give me any of that jive!
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- to play jive.
- to dance to jive; jitterbug.
- Slang. to engage in kidding, teasing, or exaggeration.
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- Slang. to tease; fool; kid: Stop jiving me!
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- Slang. insincere, pretentious, or deceptive.
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Origin of jive
1920–25; origin obscure; alleged to be an alteration of gibe1, though the shift in sense and phonetic change are unexplained
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for jive
Contemporary Examples
Instead, she wanted to listen to her music and go disco-ing or to some jive concert.
"Spiteful" Diana Had "No Feeling For Her Husband or His Family" Says Lady Pamela HicksTom Sykes
September 5, 2013
Then, when Ali's jive began to bend toward something like truth, Lipsyte snatched those thoughts for his column.
jive
- a style of lively and jerky dance performed to jazz and, later, to rock and roll, popular esp in the 1940s and 1950s
- Also called: jive talk a variety of American slang spoken chiefly by Black people, esp jazz musicians
- slang, mainly USdeliberately misleading or deceptive talk
- (as modifier)jive talk
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- (intr) to dance the jive
- slang, mainly US to mislead; tell lies (to)
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Word Origin
C20: of unknown origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for jive
v.1
1928, "to deceive playfully," also "empty, misleading talk" (n.) and "a style of fast, lively jazz and dance music," American English, from Black English, probably of African origin (cf. Wolof jev, jeu "talk about someone absent, especially in a disparaging manner"). Related: Jived; jiving. Used from 1938 for "New York City African-American slang."
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v.2
"agree," 1943, apparently a mistake for jibe (q.v.).
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adj.
"not acting right," 1969, U.S. black English, from jive (n.) (see jive (1)). Extended form jive-ass (1964, adj.; 1969, n.) is defined in OED as "A word of fluid meaning and application."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper