glib

(glĭb)
adj., glib·ber, glib·best.

1. Performed with a natural, offhand ease: was fascinated by his unfailingly glib conversation.
2. Characterized by fluency of speech or writing that often suggests insincerity, superficiality, or a lack of concern.

[Possibly of Low German origin.]

glibly glib'ly adv.
glibness glib'ness n.

SYNONYMS   glib, slick, smooth-tongued. These adjectives mean being, marked by, or engaging in ready but often insincere or superficial discourse: a glib denial; a slick commercial; a smooth-tongued hypocrite.

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"Glib" is what Tom Cruise called his interviewer, Matt Lauer, on the Today show, when Lauer asked him about his well-known opposition to psychiatric drugs:

"'Matt, Matt, you don't even — you're glib,' Cruise responded. 'You don't even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That's what I've done.'"

Link: Cruise, Lauer argue on 'Today'

Posted June 26, 2005.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

adjective

Characterized by ready but often insincere or superficial discourse: facile, slick, smooth-tongued. See surface/depth, words.

adj

Definition: slick, smooth-talking
Antonyms: inarticulate, quiet, stuttering, taciturn, tongue-tied, uncommunicative

IN BRIEF: Ready and smooth but not sincere.

Leadership is not magnetic personality — that can just as well be a glib tongue. — Peter F. Drucker.

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• Release Date: 1983
• Genre: Traditional
• Style: Board Game

Game Description

Created by board game manufacturer Selchow & Richter, Glib is an interesting word game, which in itself is an odd genre to find on the Atari VCS. Two rows of seven blocks each are displayed on the screen, and at the beginning of each round random letters cycle through the seven upper blocks. At the press of the action button, the letters are halted, and one is moved to the first block of the lower row -- and now the player has to come up with an actual word by moving the seven available letters around.

As with Scrabble, each letter has an individual point value, so in some cases -- where possible -- the more unusual the word, the better. If nothing can be done with the letters presented, players can move their joystick-controlled cursor to the "Pass" button and reject the current selection, starting over again from the beginning of the round. Glib can be played with or without a time limit, with one or two players, and there's even a game variation in which the letters in the upper row scroll relentlessly from right to left. (Oddly, the number of players is determined by the setting of the left difficulty switch -- "A" for one player, "B" for two.)

Glib is a neat little game, and unique in the Atari VCS library, but it's far better suited to a computer with a drag-and-drop capability; as much as an Atari VCS word game was unusual in itself, many casual players may not have the patience to do the joystick jockeying necessary to play it. But it's also one of the rarest cartridges in the entire Atari VCS library, so anyone who's looking for it now probably can't be described as a "casual player" by any means.

For a list of words related to glib, see:

• Intelligent, Informed, Clever, or Articulate
• Ordinary, Dull, Plain, or Banal

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See words rhyming with "glib."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Glib.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - rapmundet, letflydende og overfladisk

Nederlands (Dutch)
welbespraakt maar onoprecht, gemakkelijk/ informeel, ondoordacht, oppervlakkig, ongehinderd

Français (French)
adj. - désinvolte

Deutsch (German)
adj. - zungenfertig, gewandt, aalglatt

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - μαλαγάνικος

Italiano (Italian)
loquace, sciolto (discorso, movimento), levigato

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - desembaraçado, fluente, loquaz

Русский (Russian)
чуб, бойкий на язык, правдоподобный, податливый, гладкий, делать гладким, двигаться плавно

Español (Spanish)
adj. - de mucha labia, locuaz, poco sincero

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - lätt och ledig, hal (åld.)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
能说善道的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 能說善道的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 수다스러운, 쉬운

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 口の達者な, 屈託のない

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) عفوي, طبيعي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮קל-לשון, מהיר-דיבור, לא רציני, חלק, לא אמיתי‬

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