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Ultimately from Old Japanese.[1] 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 to roast in the senses of to admonish severely or to criticize severely.

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



いびる (transitive, godan conjugation, romaji ibiru)

  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




  1. ^ 2003, ベネッセ古語辞典 (Benesse Dictionary of Archaic Words) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Benesse, ISBN 4-8288-0442-0