They sat around kibitzing about their children. My uncle likes to kibitz when I play poker with my cousins. He likes to kibitz our poker games.
Recent Examples on the WebGuys who kibitz, inform and entertain all the way through. Evan Grant, Dallas News, 12 Nov. 2020 Instead, Cora and other members of the baseball operations staff enjoyed kibitzing with Celtics coach Brad Stevens, a visiting dignitary to Fenway in one of the organization’s busiest — and in some ways, most exciting — weeks of the year. Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Jan. 2020 Failed ex-candidates should kibitz seldom, and then without coy evasions; Mrs. Clinton deserved the rebuke. Nr Editors, National Review, 24 Oct. 2019 Her approach comes out of the early online communities that sprang up around shows, where fans could kibitz and argue, exchanging detailed exegeses of episodes and (back then) bootleg videotapes. Jennifer Szalai, New York Times, 3 July 2019 The giggle of the stream is usually the loudest sound … like kids kibitzing over candy. Chris Erskine, latimes.com, 6 June 2019 Some tried to keep close watch over his kibitzing with guests during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan’s visit to Palm Beach, Fla., last week, according to two people familiar with the planning. Katie Rogers, New York Times, 23 Apr. 2018 After his first-place score of 87.16 flashed, and with a handful of riders still up top, there was 17-year-old shredder Red Gerard kibitzing with none other than IOC President Thomas Bach.USA TODAY, 10 Feb. 2018 Like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Alex spends more time kibitzing with customers on the selling floor than inside his office. Steven Kurutz, New York Times, 29 Mar. 2018 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Yiddish kibetsn or German kiebitzen "to look on (at a card game)," both borrowed from Rotwelsch (German underworld argot) kiebitschen, chippischen, gippischen "(of the police) to search out, patrol," of obscure origin
Note: In passage from Rotwelsch to ordinary vernaculars, there has presumably been a jocular transfer in sense from the undesirable observation of underworld activity by the police to observation of a more innocent activity such as a game. Corresponding to the Rotwelsch verb is a noun Kiewisch, Gippisch, Kippisch, etc., "police search, investigation, patrol," attested slightly earlier, perhaps first (as Gippisch, Geppisch) in a vocabulary appended to Alphabetisches Verzeichnis einer Anzahl von Räubern, Dieben und Vagabonden (Hamburg, 1814), by a Danish police official, H.C. Christensen, based on an investigation carried out in Kiel in 1811-12. Neither the German or Yiddish words or their Rotwelsch source have any plausible connection to German Kiebitz "lapwing" other than by secondary association.