glib

English

WOTD – 10 August 2007    

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡlɪb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪb

Etymology 1

Probably modification of Low German glibberig (slippery).

Adjective

glib (comparative glibber, superlative glibbest)

1. Having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow.
2. Smooth or slippery.
3. Artfully persuasive in nature.

Derived terms

• glibly
• glibness

Translations

having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding

• French: désinvolte (fr)
• Italian: loquace (it), fluente (it)
• Norwegian:

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

• Scottish Gaelic: leamh, cabanta

Etymology 2

From Irish glib.

Noun

glib (plural glibs)

1. (historical) A mass of matted hair worn down over the eyes, formerly worn in Ireland.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.8:

     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 […].

Etymology 3

Compare Old English and dialect lib to castrate, geld, Danish dialect 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) To castrate; to geld; to emasculate.
   • 1623: William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, Act II Scene 1

     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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *glibъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡlîːb/

Noun

glȋb m (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