Easily Confused Words: Jibe and Gibe
jibe ≠gibe
To jibe is to be in harmony or accord with. Her adopt-a-highway plan didn’t jibe with my idea of a good spring break. Surprisingly, jibe also means “to shift from one side to the other when running before the wind, as a fore-and-aft sail or its boom.”
To gibe is to jeer, taunt, or deride. Or, as a noun, gibes are insults.
After putting up with my lab partner’s gibes for the entire length of the project, I requested a less asinine classmate for the next semester’s project. As I told the professor, our styles just didn’t jibe, because I am amiable and she is an intractable boor.