Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An obsolete spelling of jibe.
  • noun An obsolete spelling of gibe.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb (Naut.) To shift from one side of a vessel to the other; -- said of the boom of a fore-and-aft sail when the vessel is steered off the wind until the sail fills on the opposite side.
  • See gibe.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb nautical To change tack with the wind crossing behind the boat. (Mostly used of boats and other small sailing craft — the corresponding manoeuver in a sailing ship is to wear.)
  • verb nautical To shift a fore-and-aft sail suddenly and forcefully from one side to the other, while sailing before the wind. (also jibe.)
  • verb To sneer (see gibe.)
  • verb gybe at: to hesitate, vacillate, or balk when faced with a proposal, plan, or course of action. (Obsolete)
  • noun The act of gybing.
  • noun A sudden shift of a sail's angle, or a sudden change in the direction that a boat is sailing.
  • noun A sudden change in direction or approach; vacillation.
  • noun A sneer. (see gibe.)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb shift from one side of the ship to the other

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From obsolete Dutch gijben (modern Dutch: gijpen).

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Examples

Comments

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  • "'...in my considered opinion she is a perfectly odious woman.'

    "As though struck down by a judgment the moment he had finished these words, he pitched forward out of his chair on to what little deck was free... An even younger midshipman ... had committed the vessel to a manoeuvre that, the guys being untimely cast off, resulted in a truly monumental gybe."

    --P. O'Brian, The Yellow Admiral, 194

    March 19, 2008