Meaning & use
jiving
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“jiving” is a form of “jive”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbintransitive
Dancing to fast swing, jazz or early rock music with lively, bouncing steps and quick turns.
Grammar: No object; often followed by a place or a partner phrase: they were jiving in the hall.
Patterns
- jive with someone
- jive to something
- jive around
Half the room was jiving to the band by ten o'clock.
My grandparents met while jiving at a village dance in 1958.
She spent the whole evening jiving with her cousin.
verbtransitive or intransitiveinformalslangAmericanold-fashioned
Teasing someone, or telling them things that are exaggerated or untrue, usually in a joking way.
Grammar: Can take a person as object: stop jiving me. Also works alone: he was only jiving.
Patterns
- jive someone
- jive about something
Don't jive me; I know you didn't finish the report.
He wasn't serious, he was just jiving around with the new guys.
Are you jiving, or did you really win the prize?
Word forms
| base form | jive |
|---|---|
| third person singular | jives |
| past tense | jived |
| -ing form | jiving |
Common combinations
- jiving to the music
- The couple were jiving to the music long after the band stopped.
- jiving on the dance floor
- Dozens of teenagers were jiving on the dance floor.
- jiving all night
- We were jiving all night at the reunion.
- stop jiving
- Stop jiving and tell me what really happened.
- jiving around
- He was jiving around, trying to make everyone laugh.
Synonyms and how they differ
- jitterbugging
- Jitterbugging names the same swing-era dance but sounds more vintage and is tied to 1940s America, whereas jiving is wider in use.
- dancing
- Dancing is the general word for any movement to music, while jiving points to one fast, bouncy style.
- kidding
- Kidding is the everyday word for joking and sounds current, while jiving in this sense sounds dated and slangy.
- teasing
- Teasing suggests poking fun at a specific person, while jiving can also mean talking nonsense with no target.
Word family
Commonly confused: jiving or jibe? jiving or gybe?
jiving vs jibe
Jibe (or gibe) means a mocking remark and is a different word, though it sounds similar and is sometimes spelled jive by mistake.
jiving vs gybe
Gybe is a sailing term for swinging the sail across the boat, and has nothing to do with dancing.
Practice
Which sentence uses jiving to mean dancing?
Choose one answer.
Jiving at a wedding is lively dancing. The second and third options use the slang sense of teasing or misleading, and the fourth is not a use of the word at all.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “jiving”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.