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jive

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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

jive¹

  • /ˈd͡ʒaɪv/

Sounds like gyve · Rhymes with -aɪv

Where it comes from

Unknown. Slang attested in African-American and rural American culture. Frequently used to imply lying, verbal deception or trickery. Has a possible historical antecedent in gyve (“shackle”). Alternatively, of African origin, compare Wolof jev, jeu (“to talk about someone absent, especially in a disparaging manner”).

verb jives · jiving · jived

  1. US, colloquial, intransitive, transitive To deceive; to be deceptive. Don’t try to jive me! I know where you were last night!
  2. colloquial, intransitive To dance, originally to jive or swing music; later, to jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, disco, etc. You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life; ooh, see that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the dancing queen!
  3. intransitive To speak in jive (jazz or hipster slang).

noun jives

  1. uncountable A dance style popular in the 1940–50s.
  2. uncountable Swing, a style of jazz music.
  3. uncountable A slang associated with jazz musicians; hepcat patois or hipster jargon. Then the loud sound did seem to fade / Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase / That weren't no DJ, that was hazy cosmic jive
  4. US, colloquial, countable, uncountable Synonym of bullshit: patent nonsense, transparently deceptive talk. Don’t give me that jive. I know where you were last night.
  5. US, colloquial, countable, derogatory, often, uncountable African-American Vernacular English. Although speaking Western Japanese to your friends in Ōsaka, Kyōto, or Kōbe will allow you to get closer to them, speaking Western Japanese in Tōkyō might seem as outlandish as hearing a Japanese exchange student back home speaking jive or cockney.
  6. countable, dated, slang, uncountable Marijuana

adjective jiver · jivest

  1. dated, empty gloss, no gloss (dated, Black slang) In the DuPont plantation state they even passed a law that said if building codes aren't lived up to you can deposit your money in one of the company banks and leave it then 'til the cat comes round. Ain't that the jivest crap you ever heard of? I mean, paternalism with a capital WHITE.

jive²

  • /ˈd͡ʒaɪv/

Sounds like gyve · Rhymes with -aɪv

verb jives · jiving · jived

  1. US To jibe: to accord, to agree.

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