いびる

Japanese

Etymology

Ultimately from Old Japanese. Cognate with 燻る (iburu, “to smoke, to smolder”, intransitive), and 炙る, 焙る (aburu, “to roast over a flame; to warm or dry over a flame”, transitive).

Originally had these meanings, which persist as less-used senses. This evolved over time to mean to tease, to torment, to give someone a hard time. Compare use of English roast in the senses of to admonish severely or to criticize severely.

For unknown reasons, this verb is never spelled with kanji.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) いびる [ìbíꜜrù] (Nakadaka – [2])
• IPA^(key): [ibʲiɾɯ̟]

Verb

いびる • (ibiru) transitive godan (stem いびり (ibiri), past いびった (ibitta))

1. to tease, to torment
2. to pester, to nag, to wheedle someone into doing something
3. to slow-roast something
4. to boil something

Conjugation

Conjugation of "いびる" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)

Katsuyōkei ("stem forms")
Mizenkei ("imperfective")	いびら	ibira
Ren’yōkei ("continuative")	いびり	ibiri
Shūshikei ("terminal")	いびる	ibiru
Rentaikei ("attributive")	いびる	ibiru
Kateikei ("hypothetical")	いびれ	ibire
Meireikei ("imperative")	いびれ	ibire
Key constructions
Passive	いびられる	ibirareru
Causative	いびらせる いびらす	ibiraseru ibirasu
Potential	いびれる	ibireru
Volitional	いびろう	ibirō
Negative	いびらない	ibiranai
Negative continuative	いびらず	ibirazu
Formal	いびります	ibirimasu
Perfective	いびった	ibitta
Conjunctive	いびって	ibitte
Hypothetical conditional	いびれば	ibireba

Synonyms

• (torment): 苛(いじ)める (ijimeru); 苛(さいな)む (sainamu)
• (pester): 強請(ねだ)る (nedaru)
• (roast): 炙(あぶ)る (aburu), 焙(あぶ)る (aburu); 焼(や)く (yaku)
• (boil): 茹(ゆ)でる (yuderu)