Crib
Contents
English
Noun
Crib (plural Cribs)- (US) A baby’s bed (British and Australasian cot) with high, often slatted, often moveable sides, suitable for a child who has outgrown a cradle or bassinet.
- (UK) A bed for a child older than a baby.
- (nautical) A small sleeping berth in a packet ship or other small vessel
- A wicker basket; compare Moses basket.
- A manger, a feeding trough for animals elevated off the earth or floor, especially one for fodder such as hay.
- The baby Jesus and the manger in a creche or Nativity scene, consisting of statues of Mary, Joseph and various other characters such as the magi.
- A bin for drying or storing grain, as with a corn crib.
- A small room or covered structure, especially one of rough construction, used for storage or penning animals.
- A confined space, as with a cage or office-cubicle
- (obsolete) A job, a position; (British), an appointment.
- A hovel, a roughly constructed building best suited to the shelter of animals but used for human habitation.
- (slang) One’s residence, or where one normally hangs out.
- A boxy structure traditionally built of heavy wooden timbers, to support an existing structure from below, as with a mineshaft or a building being raised off its foundation in preparation for being moved; see cribbing.
- (usually plural) A collection of quotes or references for use in speaking, for for assembling a written document, or as an aid to a project of some sort; a crib sheet.
- (obsolete) A minor theft, extortion or embezzlement, with or without criminal intent.
- (cribbage): Short for the card game cribbage.
- (cribbage): The cards discarded by players and used by the dealer.
- (cryptography) A known piece of information corresponding to a section of encrypted text, that is then used to work out the remaining sections.
- (New Zealand, southern) A small holiday home, often near a beach and of simple construction.
- (Australian, New Zealand) A packed lunch taken to work.
- In C.17–early 18 c., food; provender. This sense is extant in dial.
- Abbreviation of cribbage (colloquial; from about 1680)
- An abode, shop, lodgings, public-house: from about 1810; orig. c., then low. Dickens, in Oliver Twist, ‘The crib's barred up at night like a jail.’
- A bed: from about 1820; c., then low. Maginn's Vidocq: ‘You may have a crib to stow in.’ Ex dial. sense (–1790), a child's cot.
- Hence, a ‘berth’, a situation, job: 1859, H., 1st ed.
- A plagiarism: from about 1830; colloquial.
- A literal translation illicitly used by students or pupils: colloquial: from about 1825.
- Stomach: (language of the underworld): ?C.17–19.
Synonyms
- (holiday home): bach (New Zealand, northern)
Derived terms
Verb
Crib (third-person singular simple present Cribs, present participle cribbing, simple past and past participle cribbed)
- (transitive) To place or confine in a crib.
- (intransitive) To collect one or more passages and/or references for use in a speech, written document or as an aid for some task; to create a crib sheet.
- (intransitive) To install timber supports, as with cribbing.
- (transitive, obsolete) To steal or embezzle, to cheat out of: petty thieving.
- To pilfer; take furtively: from about 1740. Foote, 1772, ‘There are a brace of birds and a hare, that I cribbed this morning out of a basket of game.’
- To plagiarize: colloquial: 1778 (S.O.D.).
- To use a CRIB (n., 7): from about 1790; colloquial.
- To cheat in an examination: colloquial; from about 1840. Punch, 1841 (vol. I), ‘Cribbing his answers from a tiny manual…which he hides under his blotting paper’.
- To beat (a person) at fisticuffs: London streets’: about 1810–40. Tom Cribb defeated Belcher in 1807.
- Hence, to thrash: low: from about 1840.
- To grumble: military: late C. 19–
- Probably a back-formation ex CRIB-BITER. In all senses, the (verbal noun)cribbing is frequent.
Derived terms
Adjectives for Crib
lace-ruffled; comfortable; safeguarded; padded; wicker; swinging; basket.
Thesaurus
Colonial bed, Hollywood bed, Nissen hut, Quonset hut, abiding place, abode, abstract, act like, address, affect, amplification, and, annex, appropriate, archives, armory, arsenal, assume, attic, bag, bagnio, bank, basement, bassinet, bawdy house, bawdyhouse, bay, beat, bed-davenport, beef, beguile of, bellyache, berth, betting house, betting parlor, bilingual text, bilk, bin, blast, blow off, bonded warehouse, bookcase, boost, booth, bordello, borrow, bottle up, box, box in, box up, brothel, bunco, bunk, bunk bed, bunker, burn, buttery, cabin, cage, camp bed, cantonment, cargo dock, casino, casket, cathouse, cavity, cell, cellar, cellule, chamber, cheat, check, chest, chisel, chorus, chouse, chouse out of, clavis, cloister, closet, coffin, cog, cog the dice, compartment, con, confine, conservatory, constrain, coop, coop in, coop up, cop, copy, cork up, cot, counterfeit, cozen, crab, cradle, cramp, crash pad, crate, crypt, cupboard, day bed, decipherment, decoding, defraud, den, den of vice, depository, depot, detain, diddle, disorderly house, ditto, dive, do, do in, do like, do out of, dock, domicile, domus, door bed, double bed, double bunk, drawer, dump, duplex bed, dwelling, dwelling place, echo, elevator, embezzle, encage, encase, enclose, enclosed space, entomb, euchre, exchequer, extort, faithful translation, fake, feather bed, fence in, filch, finagle, flam, flat, fleece, flimflam, fob, fold-away bed, forge, four-poster, free translation, fudge, fuss, gambling den, gambling hall, gambling hell, gambling house, gaming house, garner, gatehouse, glory hole, gloss, glossary, go like, godown, gouge, grain bin, grain elevator, granary, gull, gyp, habitation, hammock, have, hayloft, haymow, hayrick, hell, hem in, hocus, hocus-pocus, hoke, hoke up, hold, hold in custody, hold in restraint, hole, hollow, hook, hospital bed, house of assignation, house of joy, house of prostitution, hut, hutch, imitate, immure, impound, infringe a copyright, inhibit, interlinear, interlinear translation, joint, keep in, keep in custody, keep in detention, key, king-size bed, kiosk, lean-to, library, lift, locker, lodging, lodging place, lodgment, loose translation, lower berth, lumber room, lumberyard, magasin, magazine, make like, make off with, manger, metaphrase, mew, mew up, mirror, mow, mulct, nest, nip, outbuilding, outhouse, pack the deal, pad, pallet, palm, panel bed, panel den, panel house, paraphrase, pavilion, pen, pen up, pew, pigeon, pilfer, pinch, pipe berth, pirate, place, place to live, plagiarize, poach, pony, poolroom, poster bed, pound, practice fraud upon, purloin, quarter berth, queen-size bed, rack, rail in, red-light district, reecho, reflect, repeat, repertory, repository, reservoir, residence, restatement, restrain, restrict, rewording, rick, roll-away bed, roof, rook, run away with, rustle, scam, screw, scrounge, seal up, seat, sell gold bricks, sentry box, shack, shackle, shanty, shave, shed, shelf, shoplift, shortchange, shut in, shut up, silo, simulate, single bed, sink of iniquity, snare, snatch, snitch, sofa-bed, sporting house, squawk, stack, stack room, stack the cards, stall, steal, stew, stews, stick, sting, stock room, storage, store, storehouse, storeroom, straiten, supply base, supply depot, swindle, swipe, take, take a dive, tank, tenderloin, tester bed, thieve, thimblerig, three-quarter bed, throw a fight, tollbooth, tollhouse, transcription, translation, transliteration, treasure house, treasure room, treasury, trot, truckle bed, trundle bed, vat, vault, victimize, walk off with, wall in, warehouse, whorehouse, wine cellar, yammer
Etymology
From Old English cribb (“manger, stall”), from West Proto-Germanic. Cognate with Dutch krib, German Krippe (“rack, crib”). The sense of ‘stealing, taking notes, plagiarize’ seems to have developed out of the verb.
Pronunciation
Translations
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