shuck and jive

English

Alternative forms

• shuck-and-jive (noun)

Etymology

From Afro-American vernacular English.

Pronunciation

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Verb

shuck and jive (third-person singular simple present shucks and jives, present participle shucking and jiving, simple past and past participle shucked and jived)

1. (slang, offensive, derogatory) To tell a misleading story, especially for advantage.
   • 2007 January 5, Sufiya Abdur-Rahman, “Growing Up To Be a Black Man”, in washingtonpost.com:

     I also tell Tony to beware of the paths that America's legacy of racism has cleared for him. There's the one for the lazy, the uneducated, criminals, homeless people or those receiving government assistance of some kind. And there's the one for those who can rap or play basketball. And then there's one, perhaps most dangerous and damaging of all, for the folks willing to shuck and jive their way to the top of some diversity-deprived corporation or government-appointed post, compromising chunks of themselves along the way just to "make it."

Noun

shuck and jive (usually uncountable, plural shucks and jives or shuck and jives)

1. (slang, offensive, derogatory) Deceit.
   • 1979 December 21, “Hank Williams Jr. at the Roxy”, in Los Angeles Times:

     More often than not, the I've-really-paid-my-dues stance adopted by country singers is pure shuck and jive. That's not the case with Hank Williams Jr.

See also

• cock and bull story