jive
A dance style popular in the 1940–50sA dance style popular in the 1940–50s.
» Funky music, fellas! Let's jive!
althead · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
6 senses(uncountable)A dance style popular in the 1940–50s.
(uncountable)Swing, a style of jazz music.
(uncountable)A slang associated with jazz musicians; hepcat patois or hipster jargon.
(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.
(US, colloquial, countable, derogatory, often, uncountable)African-American Vernacular English.
(countable, dated, slang, uncountable)Marijuana
- a style of jazz played by big bands popular in the 1930s; flowing rhythms but less complex than later styles of jazz
Examples
1 sentencesFunky music, fellas! Let's jive!
Origin
Unknown. Slang attested in African-American and rural American culture. Frequently used toUnknown. 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”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: jivesSynonyms
3 synonymsWord family
6 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.