kibitzing








verb (used without object)

  1. to act as a kibitzer.

verb (used with object)

  1. to offer advice or criticism to as a kibitzer: to kibitz the team from the bleachers.

verb

  1. (intr) US and Canadian informal to interfere or offer unwanted advice, esp as a spectator at a card game
v.

1927, from Yiddish kibitsen “to offer gratuitous advice as an outsider,” from German kiebitzen “to look on at cards, to kibitz,” originally in thieves’ cant “to visit,” from Kiebitz, name of a shore bird (European pewit, lapwing) with a folk reputation as a meddler, from Middle High German gibitz “pewit,” imitative of its cry. Young lapwings are proverbially precocious and active, and were said to run around with half-shells still on their heads soon after hatching.

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