Never say your Mother bred a jibber

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on April 20, 2005

In Reply to: Never say your Mother bred a jibber posted by Trish on April 20, 2005

: What does this phrase mean and where did it originate?
The verb "to jib" describes what a horse does when it flinches sharply and refuses to continue going forward, e.g. "My horse jibbed at the sound of gunfire". It is used of people in a figurative sense, e.g. "She jibbed at the cost". I've never heard "jibber" as a noun but logically it would mean a nervous cowardly person who habitually backs off from danger, difficulty or commitment.