glib

English

WOTD – 10 August 2007

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡlɪb/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɪb

Etymology 1

A shortening of either obsolete English glibbery (“slippery”) or its source, Low German glibberig, glibberich (“slippery”) / Dutch glibberig (“slippery”).

Adjective

glib (comparative glibber, superlative glibbest)

1. Having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow.

   glib anwers

   • 2004 August 26, Leslie Feinberg, “Survival with Setbacks”, in Workers World‎^[1]:

     A much more thorough examination of this period is essential, and no glib answers should be accepted as good coin.

   • 2019 February 14, Simon Jenkins, “The Churchill row is part of the glib approach to history that gave us Brexit”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     As history is raided, indeed raped, by identitarians and populists, glib judgments on the past become fodder for every tribal grievance.

   • 2026 April 28, Shahidha Bari, “Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest review – painfully earnest tale of trauma and transition”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     Rather than elevating the prose, the rhymes feel glib and the sentiment vague, shorthand for an unspecified intensity: “They wanted things they couldn’t name; they wanted rest. They wanted change.”

2. (archaic, literal) Smooth or slippery.

   a sheet of glib ice

3. Artfully persuasive but insincere in nature; smooth-talking, honey-tongued, silver-tongued.

   Synonyms: facile, suave

   a glib tongue

   a glib speech

   a glib politician

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     I want that glib and oily art, / To speak and purpose not.

   • 2004 March 4, Owen Gibson, “Ofcom urged to crack down on 'glib' ITV”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

     "We are concerned that both the ITC and Ofcom appear to have accepted this glib attempt at justification. We are far from reassured in respect of programming for the Meridian region and for the ITV network, and believe that Ofcom should be much more vigilant on this issue.

   • 2018 March 13, Karen McVeigh, quoting Sienna Merope-Synge, “'Glib': UK criticised for failing to give to fund for survivors of UN sexual abuse”, in The Guardian‎^[5], →ISSN:

     “We see the UK government talking about having victims’ voices heard,” said [Sienna] Merope-Synge. “They have talked about the need for zero tolerance and about leadership. But there are a whole bunch of victims of UN abuse who perceive the UK as very glib about supporting victims.”

4. Snarky or unserious in a disrespectful way.
   • 1986, Daniel Garrett, “Creating Ourselves: An Open Letter”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 93:

     Sometimes our relationship is strained, for though we both recognize each other's intelligence, he think's I'm often too serious and I think he's often too glib

   • 1988 December 25, Michael Bronski, “...And They Called It Puppy Love”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 8:

     Its style is both open and arch, never verging on glib camp but always a little removed, reducing large emotions to small observations and thereby making them all the more effective.

   • 2013 October 11, Alexandra Alter, “Literary Giant Obsessed by Movies”, in The Wall Street Journal‎^[6], archived from the original on 19 September 2015:

     When Mr. Franco called Mr. McCarthy and asked why he had written a book about such a repellent character, he was glib. "He said, verbatim, 'I don't know, James, probably some dumb-ass reason,'" Mr. Franco recalled.

Derived terms

• glibertarian
• glibly
• glibness

Translations

having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding

• Bulgarian: словоохотлив (bg) (slovoohotliv)
• Catalan: loquaç (ca)
• Czech: povrchní (cs), plynný (cs), lehkovážný, zlehčující, plytký (cs)
• French: désinvolte (fr)
• Galician: larapetas m pl, larapeteiro (gl) m, laretas (gl) m pl, lareto (gl) m, lerchán (gl) m, lercho (gl) m, leriante m, lingoreteiro (gl) m, linguateiro (gl) m, paroleiro (gl) m, papexón m, zarapelo (gl) m, falabarato (gl) m
• German: schwatzhaft (de), beredsam (de), glattgebügelt (de), oberflächlich (de)
• Italian: loquace (it), fluente (it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: glatt (no), litt for veltalende, rappmunnet, rapptunget

• Polish: wygadany, elokwentny (pl)
• Russian: болтли́вый (ru) (boltlívyj), словоохо́тливый (ru) (slovooxótlivyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: leamh, cabanta
• Turkish: üstünkörü (tr)
• Ukrainian: говіркий m (hovirkyj), меткий m (metkyj)

smooth or slippery

• Bulgarian: гладък (bg) (gladăk), плъзгав (plăzgav)
• Catalan: relliscós
• German: glatt (de), rutschig (de), schlüpfrig (de)
• Polish: gładki (pl)
• Russian: гла́дкий (ru) (gládkij)
• Turkish: samimiyetsiz (tr)
• Ukrainian: гладкий m (hladkyj)

artfully persuasive but insincere in nature

• Catalan: llepó
• Czech: vemlouvavý, uhlazený
• German: aalglatt (de), gewandt (de), einschmeichelnd-betrügerisch, schmierig (de), zungenfertig (de)
• Ingrian: lippiäkeeli
• Japanese: 巧言令色な (kōgenreishoku-na) (attributive)
• Polish: powierzchowny (pl), płytki (pl)
• Turkish: cerbezeli (tr)
• Ukrainian: солодкомовний m (solodkomovnyj), облесливий m (obleslyvyj)

Verb

glib (third-person singular simple present glibs, present participle glibbing, simple past and past participle glibbed)

1. (transitive) To make smooth or slippery.
   • 1628, Joseph Hal, “Christian Liberty Laid Forth,” in The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D.D., Volume V, London: Williams & Smith, 1808, p. 366, [7]

     There is a drunken liberty of the Tongue; which, being once glibbed with intoxicating liquor, runs wild through heaven and earth; and spares neither him that is God above, nor those which are called gods on earth.

   • 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 21, lines 371–376:

     And, when to all his Angels he propos'd / To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud, / That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring, / I undertook that office, and the tongues / Of all his flattering Prophets glibb'd with lyes / To his destruction, as I had in charge.

   • 1730, Edward Strother, Dr. Radcliffe’s Practical Dispensatory‎^[8], London: C. Rivington, page 342:

     They are good internally in Fits of the Stone in the Kidneys, by glibbing the Ureters, and making even a large Stone pass with ease […]

   • 1944, Emily Carr, “Gran’s Battle”, in The House of All Sorts‎^[9]:

     We were having one of our bitterest cold snaps. Wind due north, shrieking over stiff land; two feet of snow, all substances glibbed with ice and granite-hard.

Noun

glib (plural glibs)

1. (UK, slang, obsolete) A person's mouth or tongue.

   Synonym: dubber

   • 1857, Hidden Links; Or the Schoolfellows. A Tale, volume 2, page 233:

     "Well, Sal, you mum your dubber pretty generally, but when you do slacken your glib you may as well do it civilly."

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Irish glib.

Noun

glib (plural glibs)

1. (historical) A mass of matted hair worn down over the eyes, formerly common in Ireland.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Whom when she saw in wretched weedes disguiz'd, / With heary glib deform'd and meiger face, / Like ghost late risen from his grave agryz'd, / She knew him not […]

   • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:

     The Irish have, from the Scythians, mantles and long glibs, which is a thick curled bush of hair hanging down over their eyes, and monstrously disguising them.

   • 1829, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More, or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society:

     Their wild costume of the glib and mantle.

   • 1855, Charles Kingsley, “Clovelly Court in the Olden Time”, in Westward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, […], volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 163:

     But in the dead of njight, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in hand, with a dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib over his ugly face, and his skene in his hand.

Etymology 3

Compare Old English and dialectal English lib (“to castrate, geld”), dialectal Danish live, Low German and Old Dutch lubben.

Verb

glib (third-person singular simple present glibs, present participle glibbing, simple past and past participle glibbed)

1. (obsolete) (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) To castrate; to geld; to emasculate.
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     Fourteen they shall not see
     To bring false generations. They are co-heirs;
     And I had rather glib myself than they
     Should not produce fair issue.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “glib”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Irish

Buachaill le glib

Alternative forms

• gliob

Etymology

Related to clib, clibín (“matted hair”)

Noun

glib f (genitive singular glibe, nominative plural glibeanna)

1. forelock
2. fringe (hanging hair over forehead)
3. dishevelled hair

Declension

Declension of glib (second declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative glib glibeanna vocative a ghlib a ghlibeanna genitive glibe glibeanna dative glib glibeanna forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an ghlib na glibeanna genitive na glibe na nglibeanna dative leis an nglib don ghlib leis na glibeanna

Derived terms

• glibín
• gliobach
• gliobóg

Descendants

• → English: glib (“mass of matted hair worn down over the eyes”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of glib

radical	lenition	eclipsis
glib	ghlib	nglib

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927), “glib”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla [Irish and English Dictionary], 2nd edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 547; reprinted with additions 1996, →ISBN
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “glib”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla [Irish–English Dictionary], Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *gliba.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡlîːb/

Noun

glȋb m inan (Cyrillic spelling гли̑б)

1. mud, mire

Declension

Declension of glib

	singular	plural
nominative	glȋb	glíbovi
genitive	gliba	glibova
dative	glibu	glibovima
accusative	glib	glibove
vocative	glibe	glibovi
locative	glibu	glibovima
instrumental	glibom	glibovima

Further reading

• “glib”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026