jive, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jive adj.

(orig. US black)

1. a generally negative term, applicable to a range of dubious actions, fake, phoney, deceitful, unappealing, hypocritical, insincere etc; occas. of objects (see cite 1938).

1938		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 9 Apr. 20: Harlem has more underground cabarets than that jive chili I ate [...] had beans.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 6: His cap was set straight on his head, not at a jive angle that young parachutists love.
1952		‘Hal Ellson’ Golden Spike 165: Why don’t you leave that jive bitch alone?
1964		J. Baldwin Blues for Mister Charlie 41: Jive mothers. They can rape and kill our women and we can’t do nothing.
1966		R. Giallombardo Study of a Women’s Prison 116: The jive bitch is a trouble maker. The strategy often employed by the jive bitch involves distortion of facts, as for example when she is interested in breaking up an established homosexual relationship.
1968		N. Giovanni ‘A Revolutionary Tale’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 30: Ain’t that the jivest shit you ever heard?
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 75: She ain’t nothing but a jazzy ‘jive whore’.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 166: Fuck you nigger, in your jive ass.
1978		R. De Christoforo Grease 150: What a jive jerk!
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 57: Wilson was sure this man wasn’t a cop, which made him even more of a useless jive asshole.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 50: I’m sure she had no idea how jive I’d become.
2003		J. Ellroy ‘Stephanie’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 59: The cops heard his jive confession. The cops cut him loose.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] He and Malone don’t do that jive brothers-from-another-mother, ebony-and-ivory bullshit.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 146: ‘Concoct jive cover stories’.

2. unimportant, trivial, foolish.

1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 192: I was going to get busted for something jive, something like smoking reefers.
1972		‘Soulful Spider’ ‘Pimp in a Clothing Store’ in Milner & Milner (1972) 286: Yessiree, Jack, he’s coming on down high-sidin’[...] hollering, ‘Hey, you jive malformies, you better get on your job out there, quit your chippying!’.
1981		M. Baker Nam (1982) 91: When I got short […] my platoon commander gave me a jive job sending me to the rear with my shotgun to get the mail.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 60: If we couldn’t take a jive beating [...] we’d never survive the serious thumpings that would come in time.
2012		W.D. Myers Cruisers: A Star is Born 98: Your little jive newspaper ain’t got nothing like that, man.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 116: ‘And fuck you too, you jive nigga!’.

In derivatives

jivey (adj.) (also jivy)

1. (US) redolent of jive music, lively, aware [SE jive, swing music].

1943		M. Drake et al. ‘Mairzy Doats’ 🎵 If the words sound queer, and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey.
1959		Mad mag. Sept. 41: It’s frantically cool and jivey that we’re on this kick.
1965		S. Yurick Warriors (1966) 15: The radio announced, in that frenzied jivy way ‘. . . and now for...’.
1967		J. Horton ‘Time and cool people’ in Trans-action 4 11/1: Style [...] may be expressed in the loose walk, the jivey or dancing walk, the slow, cool walk, the way one ‘chops’ or ‘makes it’ down the street.

2. (US) pretentious, insincere, phoney, hypocritical etc. [fig. use of sense 1 above].

1965		A. Baraka in Tales (1969) 89: OK, be intellectual, go write some more of them jivey books.
1972		M.J. Bosse Incident at Naha 85: I’m not sure I would have accepted that sort of jivey explanation, but Mrs. Halliday did .
2002		posting at George Carlin BBS 24 Apr. 🌐 Talkin’ jivey poison Ivy, you ain’t gonna cling to me. Man taker, born faker, I ain’t so blind I can’t see.
2004		posting at www.thrillnetwork.com 🌐 Jivey lingo is like, um, weird ways you say stuff, like calling a cigarette a faggot. Yeah.

In compounds

jive hand (n.) [SE hand, the cards that one has been dealt]

(US black) an undesirable situation that puts one person at an unfair disadvantage, one is dealt ‘a bad hand’.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

jive handshake (n.)

(US) any of variously choreographed handshakes in which, e,g., the parties may release their clasp, perform fist bumps or other ritualized gestures, then clasp again.

1973

Bernstein & Woodward All the President’s Men 274: [H]e raced around the office, pounding Rosenfeld on the shoulder [and] attempting to exchange a jive handshake with Sussman.

jive nigger (n.)

see jive-ass n.¹

jive roller (n.)

see roller n. (7)

jivetime (adj.) [jive n.¹ (2) + ? pun on the radio daypart drivetime]

(US black) insincere, dishonest, stupid.

1962		(con. 1940s) H. Simmons Man Walking On Eggshells 114: If any of them ole jive-time Lomas had messed with her I’d kicked their ass myself.
1972		N.C. Heard To Reach a Dream 55: There were some petty jive-time pimps in the jail who made it known to all who’d listen that they were the best things that ever happened to women.
1985		O. Hawkins Chili 11: All the jive time games and effervescent bullshit.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 63: What would we do without jive? Attach it to hand-, -talkin, -turkey, -time, -ass, and a slew of others.

jive turkey (n.) [turkey n.¹ (4a)]

(US black) an insincere, deceitful, dishonest person.

1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 118: Take that, you jive turkey!
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 43: Jive turkey [...] refer[s] to the talker who bounces the conversational ball off the wall [...] or who demonstrates ignorance about the subject being discussed.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 205: You don’t mind if I take this jive turkey, do ya, Jim?
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 63: What would we do without jive? Attach it to hand-, -talkin, -turkey, -time, -ass, and a slew of others.