jibber the kibber, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jibber the kibber v.

[a lantern is tied to a horse’s neck and the horse itself has one foot tied. The movement this produces appears, from out on a dark sea, to resemble a moving ship’s light. Ety. unknown; DSUE suggests jibber, to confuse, but it does not appear until 1824; jib, for a horse to move in fits and starts, is also 19C; ?17C dial. jibby-horse, a flashy, showy woman is East Anglian, but Grose (1785) links such wrecking to ‘our western coasts’; kibber may be reduplication, it may relate to Cornish dial. kib, to steal]

to set up a device deliberately to wreck ships for the potential plunder.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 67: Jibber the Kibber is the watch-word made use of by people on the Coast of Cornwall to point out a wreck.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: [as 1788 with ‘Cornwall’ instead of ‘western coasts’].
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Jibber the Kibber. A method of deceiving seamen, by fixing a candle and lanthorn round the neck of a horse, one of whose fore feet is tied up; this at night has the appearance of a ship’s light. Ships bearing towards it, run on shore, and being wrecked, are plundered by the inhabitants. This diabolical device is, it is said, practised by the inhabitants of our western coasts.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1788].
1938		(con. 1850s) Western Morn. News 29 Aug. 6/3: Men of Devon and Cornwall [...] were the wreckers because it was profitable [...] Seamen called this dirty trick ‘Jibber the kibber’.