Meaning of Jive | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A dance style popular in the 1940–50s.
   uncountable
2. Swing, a style of jazz music.
   uncountable
3. A slang associated with jazz musicians; hepcat patois or hipster jargon.
   uncountable
4. Synonym of bullshit: patent nonsense, transparently deceptive talk.
   US, colloquial, countable, uncountable
5. African-American Vernacular English.
   US, colloquial, countable, derogatory, often, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“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”

“Don’t give me that jive. I know where you were last night.”

“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.”

“"Oh come on," she said. "I heard you talking jive the other day when you were playing with your dolls. And back in February, when you recited that poem by, by—what was the poet's name? "Langston Hughes?" "Right, Langston Hughes," Kanta said. "You spoke jive when you read that poem, remember?"”

CEFR level