giber
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]giber (plural gibers)
- One who utters gibes.
- c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act 2, scene 1, lines 76–78:
- Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter / giber for the table than a necessary bencher in the / Capitol.
- 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
- Come Sempronia , leave him;
He is a giber; and our present business
Is of more serious consequence
- 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:
- […] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]
- 1885, Richard F. Burton, chapter XI, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume I, The Burton Club, page 108:
- Aloof you stand and hear the railer's gibe / While rain their shafts on me the giber-band.
Synonyms
[edit]- See Thesaurus:joker