Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to engage in sexual intercourse.

1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 144: Jivin’ a dickty gal now.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 108: Now I jived this little broad and carried her to the East / and when my dough got low, boy, this was her beef.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 227: Like when you’re really jivin’. Heard any good audibles lately?
1982		(con. 1970) J.M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley (1983) 242: Honky’s fag. You jive with them cocksuckers in Fag Hilton.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.

2. (also jibe, jive up) to talk nonsense, to deceive, trick or flatter by apparently empty chatter; thus jive about with, give some jive, to play with, to mess around.

1929		Edith Johnson ‘Good Chib Blues’ 🎵 Don’t try to jive me, sweet talk can’t make me stay.
1936		A.E. Duckett ‘Truckin ’round Brooklyn’ in N.Y. Age 21 Nov. 7/1: Where did you jive up the 35¢ Butch?
1938		Flash! (Wash., D.C.) 21 Feb. 11/1: jive—Sometimes spelled jibe; meaning to dwell intently upon an effusive exhortation along some particular line minus sincerity.
1941		Cab Calloway ‘Hep Cat’s Love Song’ 🎵 You may say that I’m jivin’, / But it’s you that I’m thinkin’ of, / It’s not imagination or infatuation.
1953		W. Fisher Waiters 220: You can’t jive the jiver [...] I back cap all plays.
1958		Life 14 Apr. 131: Don’t jive me up.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 138: That was last night and I was jivin’, woman [...] you know a man’ll say anything in bed.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 66: You know I ain’t ever jived you, Carlos.
1983		A-Team Storybook 5: ‘Don’t you try jivin’ me!’ he growled.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 27: Most of the time they were jivin’, lying to girls about how much they liked them.
2000		F. Kellerman Stalker (2001) 518: You aren’t in any position to jive me, so cut the crap and answer me.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 287: Don’t jive me on the brothers [...] Fuck their philanthropies.

3. to play or dance to jive music, thus to live hedonistically.

1935		N.E. Williams His Hi De Highness of Ho De Ho 35/2: ‘Jiving’, meaning to improvise.
1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 15 Mar. 9/5: Our girls [...] drink and smoke amd cheat and cuss raising cain, all kinds of fuss [...] they have no claim to fame but love that jiving game.
1942		L. Bennett ‘Applicant’ in Jam. Dialect Poems 3: Yuh haffe lively up yuhself, / An jive, yuh know dem way? [Ibid.] 12: Jive is de Kin’ston way fe dance.
1946		S. Jackson An Indiscreet Guide to Soho 106: A boy [...] known as ‘Snake-eyes,’ does a little jiving by himself in the corner.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 59: That babe don’t jive.
1961		P. Larkin ‘Breadfruit’ in Coll. Poems (1988) 141: This makes them join (the boys) the tennis club, / Jive at the Mecca, use deodorants.
1975		G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 62: jive [...] 2: vi Go out on the town, have a good time.
1981		McKee & Chisenhall Beale Black & Blue 7: Soon all three were jiving, clapping hands, hamboning, scatting—making music out of nothing.
1999		Guardian Rev. 9 Oct. 5: I smashed my mum’s best vase while jiving in the lounge.

4. to tease, to make fun of.

1938		AS XIII:4 317: To jive around.
1942		L. Bennett ‘Belly-Full’ in Jam. Dialect Poems 28: Wen dem get hot an mad yuh, / Dem crack sweet joke an jive.
1952		F. Weismantel ‘Big Ten-inch Record’ 🎵 Last night I tried to tease her / I gave her a little pinch / But she said, ‘Now stop that jivin’ / And get out that big ten-inch . . . Record.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 805: jive – Small talk; to josh.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 83: You jivin’ me, girl?
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 91: What was once called ‘jiving’ and heard only in pool halls, on street corners, in school yards, game rooms and juke joints has become a new musical-linguistic form.

5. to converse, to talk.

1940		D. Maurer Big Con 285: Criminal narcotic addicts [...] talk or jive incessantly in their own argot.
1955		‘Hal Ellson’ ‘Tell Them Nothing’ in Tell Them Nothing (1956) 2: Them two is jiving each other about the job.
1965		H. Huncke ‘Beware of Fallen Angels’ in Huncke’s Journal (1998) 54: We all three jived for a few seconds – and I departed.
1978		R. De Christoforo Grease 71: He was snapping his fingers and shaking his hips as he circled the car, laying his jive on us.

6. to saunter, to swagger, to dodge.

1958		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 22 Mar. 13: He jived through the slammer like a sidewalk flim-flammer.
1968		J. Kramer Instant Replay 177: He kept jiving up and down the aisle, showing off his rug and shades.
1971		B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 145: Also lots of people who jived around in my mind just laid down and died when I wrote them in language.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 8: Shucking and jiving, juking and high-stepping, rolling his eyes and snapping his fingers in time.

7. to idle, to loaf about.

1967		John Horton ‘Time and cool people’, in Trans-action 4 11/1: The dudes could be found when they were ‘laying dead’—hanging on the corner, or shooting pool and ‘jiving’ (‘goofing’ or kidding around) in a local community project.
1970		B. Seale Seize the Time 25: A whole big crowd of cats jiving and watching me cuss him out.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 50: Jiving around drinking beer.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 30: Got to jive to stay alive.
2012		W.D. Myers Cruisers: A Star is Born 64: Sometimes they would show up ready and sometimes they would be jiving around.