Gibe
A taunting or mocking remark aimed at a specific target.
A gibe (sometimes spelled 'jibe' in American usage, though careful editors keep them distinct) is a mocking remark, usually short, usually pointed, and almost always aimed at a person rather than at an idea. The word comes from an Old French verb meaning to handle roughly, and the modern sense preserves that roughness: a gibe is not a general observation dressed as wit, it is a small blow.
The gibe sits at the sharp end of the joke family. A quip is playful; a witticism is elegant; a gibe intends to sting. This is why gibes read badly in print stripped of context: without the room, the previous provocation, and the tone of voice, the sting can look like unprovoked cruelty. Historians of oratory often preserve a gibe by reconstructing the exchange that made it deserved.
In prose, a gibe works best as evidence of a relationship — between rivals, between siblings, between a critic and the work under review. It should never carry the writer's own argument; a whole essay built on gibes reads as a grudge. One gibe, well placed and clearly earned, can do the work of a paragraph.
Common mistake: confusing 'gibe' (to mock) with 'jibe' (to agree or, in sailing, to shift a sail) and with 'jive' (slang, or to deceive). In edited prose, keep 'gibe' for the taunt.
“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.”
Keep reading the glossary
A short, sharply pointed remark designed to wound as it passes.
A sharp, witty, and often cutting remark delivered for maximum effect — the modern cousin of the epigram.
A flippant, knowing remark that scores a point through cheek rather than through wit's higher polish.
A quick, pointed reply that turns the previous speaker's words back on them.