Jive - Definition and Overview

• Jive is Swing music, or a type of quick-paced and energetic jazz. Cow Cow Davenport recorded a song called State Street Jive in 1928. Mitchell Parish defined it as "syncopated music played noisily, and (usually) fast, with great emphasis on rhythm."
• Jive is a dance.
• See also Modern Jive dance.
• Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary defined jive as

(1) (n) Harlemese speech or lingo; also stuff and things. Ex. "did you bring the jive [i.e. liquor]?"

(2) (v) to kid along, to blarney, to give a girl a line. Ex. "He can jive his way into any chick's heart".

• Jive is a slang term which refers to ebonics in a general sense. See also African American Vernacular English.
• Jive (noun) can also mean talking in a misleading, false, worthless, or glib way, as in You're jivin' me ..., Don't give me none of that jive talk!, or That's close enough for jive.
• Jive (verb) is an ebonics slang term meaning "jibe", "mix with" or "reconcile well with;" i.e. aggreeability or harmonization; "That don't particularly jive with my understanding of the situation."