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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GLIB, adj., adv., v. Also †glibb, †gleeb, †glyb; †glibe (Rxb. 1847 J. Halliday Rustic Bard 150). Sc. usages:

I. adj. 1. Smooth, slippery, moving without friction (Gall., Dmf., Slk., Uls. 1954). Formerly common in liter. Eng. but now only dial. Also fig. of persons: sharp in one's dealings, smart, cunning (Sh.¹⁰, Ags.¹⁶ 1954); also in n.Lin. dial.Sc. 1722 Ramsay Three Bonnets ii. 57–58:
While Jouk wi' language glibe as Oolie, Right pawkily kept aff a Toolie.Sc. 1788 Scots Mag. (Nov.) 558:
. . . like a coutter glib That ev'ry weyward weed can snib.Kcb. 1789 D. Davidson Seasons 21:
When ither stammacks were fu' glib, An' guid, about Strathboggy, For brose, that day.Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 233:
A person too quick, as it were, for the world, or “glibb”, is generally disliked.Dmf. 1830 R. Brown Mem. Curl. Mab. 71:
Wi' canny hand they neist play down Their stanes o' glibber metal.Per. 1871 Per. Constitutional (28 Aug.):
Her father was ower glib for them.Hdg. 1886 J. P. Reid Facts and Fancies 117:
The cook, Jeanie Blythie, a glib, tricky jade, Wha mony queer pranks in her lifetime had play'd.

Hence glibly, adv., smoothly, “applied to any thing that is easily swallowed” (Jam.² s.v. glib; Bnff.⁷ 1927).Sc. 1825 Jam.:
Sowens gang glibly oure.

2. Voluble, fluent (Sh., Abd., m.Lth., Bwk., Arg., Ayr., Gall., Rxb., Uls. 1954).Ayr. 1822 H. Ainslie Pilgrimage 88:
Mony a lang winter night I hae seen yankit by wi' his glibe gab.Ags. 1873 T. Watson Poems, etc. 287:
For her twa black pawky een, For her tongue sae glibe and witty.Bwk. 1880 T. Watts Woodland Echoes 129:
Or what the slack-gabbit, glibe gossips wad say.Slg. 1903 W. Chrystal Kippen 85:
You're abler to tell them than I am — you're glibber in the tongue.

Combs.: (1) glib-gab, voluble, babbling; (2) glib(e)-gabbit, voluble, fluent, gossipy; smooth-tongued (Abd., Per., m.Lth. 1954); (3) glib-mou(e)d, id. (Abd., Ags. 1954); (4) glib-tungt, id. (Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 66; m.Lth. 1954).(1) Dmf. 1898 J. Paton Castlebraes 245:
Nae mair bletherin' aboot yer Conversion, an' yer New Licht, an' a' the lave o' yer glib-gab havers.(2) Ayr. 1786 Burns Earnest Cry xiii.:
An' that glib-gabbet Highland Baron, The Laird o' Graham.Bwk. 1880 T. Watts Woodland Echoes 62:
Oh! it's little that's miss'd and it's muckle that's kenn'd By the glibe-gabbit clashites o' Lucky's Ben-end.Edb. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick ii.:
But I'm no' gaun to stan' up in the kirk afore a' the folk and mak a speech. I'm no' glib-gabbit eneuch for that.Ags. 2000 Montrose Review 16 Nov 15:
And warming to the theme of town councillors, many of you will have fond memories of the original Gable Ender, ... a gossiping kind of loon - a glib-gabbit clashie and nemsie with a rare North Eastern interest in the clishmaclaver o' the toun.(3) Fif. 1896 “G. Setoun” R. Urquhart iii.:
Ye're glib-mou'd on waddins, . . . but your ain's never no nearer.Sc. 1930 Scots Mag. (Oct.) 31:
I micht hae kent what wad hap atween a glib-moued colleger an' a feckless, hen-brained hussy like you.

†II. adv. Smoothly, easily, readily. Compar. glibber.Sc. 1726 R. Wodrow Analecta (M.C.) III. 314:
The act of Parliament for six thousand pound and some odds passed glyb.Sc. a.1776 D. Herd Sc. Songs II. 18:
The carling brought her kebbuck ben, With girdle-cakes well toasted brown, Well does the canny kimmer ken, They gar the scuds gae glibber down.Dmf. 1808 J. Mayne Siller Gun 40:
The reaming cogs o' nappie ale Gaed glibber down!Mry. 1820 J. Cock Hamespun Lays 110:
Fu' gleeb before the mental e'e, As lang's the pow'rs o' thought are free.Sc. 1830 Scott Doom Devorgoil iii. ii.:
Father's razor slips as glib As from courtly tongue a fib.Lnk. 1893 J. Crawford Sc. Verses 28:
Time slips by glib ye ken.

†III. v. 1. To make glib or smooth, esp. in ppl.adj. glibbet. Obs. in Eng. (exc. dial.) since 17th c.Edb. 1865 M. Barr Poems 204:
Oh! Jenny is bonnie, an' Jenny is young, Wi' a wylie black e'e an' a slee glibbet tongue.

2. To talk volubly. Obs. in liter. Eng. since early 17th c., but still found in Eng. dial.Sc. 1788 Scots Mag. (Dec.) 608:
O' Horace' wit ye want nae skair To glibe awa'.Ags. 1856 W. Grant Few Poet. Pieces 8:
Wi' college loons to glib an' yaumer . . . Until ye'r brains be dais'd and doitet.