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gybe

UK/d͡ʒaɪb/US/d͡ʒaɪb/
verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: gybing

To gybe is to turn a boat's stern through the wind. Gybe carefully, an accidental gybe, gybe onto the other tack.

It is the dangerous turn, since the boom swings right across the boat under full pressure and an uncontrolled gybe injures people and breaks rigs. Americans spell it jibe, and the safe turn through the bow is tacking.

Definitions of gybe

  1. 1verbgybeTo turn a boat's stern through the wind.C2

    “As the wind shifted, the skipper shouted a warning and we gybed, ducking as the boom swung across.”

gybe is a turning.

Also accepted in games: jibe

Where it comes from

Probably from a Dutch word for the same manoeuvre, with cognates across Scandinavian and German.

  1. Dutch

    gijben

  2. English, today

    gybe

Probably from Dutch gijben obsolete, gijpen; cognate with Danish gibbe, German gieben, giepen, Swedish gipa, gippa. The noun is derived from the verb; compare Dutch gijb obsolete, gijp (“act of gybing; a boom”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sea & Sailing

Practise this word

gybe in the wild

  • During an unplanned accidental jibe (or gybe), neither the crew nor the boat is set up properly to execute a planned jibe.

    Preventer

  • Gybe may refer to: Gybe, an alternative spelling of jibe, a sailing maneuver Chinese gybe, a type of jibe Godspeed You!

    Gybe

  • The boom brake acts as a preventer when sailing downwind, and can also be used to jibe(US) or gybe(UK) the mainsail in a slow measured action.

    Boom brake

  • As there was a gentle south-easterly sea-breeze that day, the course was virtually two long reaches, with no tacking and just a gybe at Waddy Point.

    Trio (trimaran)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the gijben family

gibe

gybe — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others