crib

Meaning

1. A baby’s bed with high, often slatted, often moveable sides, suitable for a child who has outgrown a cradle or bassinet.
2. A bed for a child older than a baby.
3. A small sleeping berth in a packet ship or other small vessel
4. A wicker basket.
5. A manger, a feeding trough for animals elevated off the earth or floor, especially one for fodder such as hay.
6. 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.
7. A bin for drying or storing grain, as with a corn crib.
8. A small room or covered structure, especially one of rough construction, used for storage or penning animals.
9. A confined space, as with a cage or office-cubicle
10. (obsolete) A job, a position; (British) an appointment.
11. A hovel, a roughly constructed building best suited to the shelter of animals but used for human habitation.
12. 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.
13. A collection of quotes or references for use in speaking, for assembling a written document, or as an aid to a project of some sort; a crib sheet.
14. (obsolete) A minor theft, extortion or embezzlement, with or without criminal intent.
15. The card game cribbage.
16. The cards discarded by players and used by the dealer.
17. A known piece of information corresponding to a section of encrypted text, that is then used to work out the remaining sections.
18. A small holiday home, often near a beach and of simple construction.
19. A snack or packed lunch, especially as taken to work to eat during a break.
20. A small raft made of timber.
21. (obsolete) The stomach.
22. A literal translation, usually of a work originally in Latin or Ancient Greek.
23. (slang) A cheat sheet or past test used by students; crib sheet.
24. (slang) One’s residence, house or dwelling place, or usual place of resort.

cradle

baby bed

timber crib

baby’s bed

small bed

basinette

feed box

call house

crib-house

crib-joint

timber pack

wooden chock

wooden-frame

child's bed

crot

cheat slip

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kɹɪb/

From Middle English crib, cribbe, from Old English crib, cryb, cribb, crybb (“couch, bed; manger, stall”), from Proto-West Germanic *kribbjā, from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ (“crib, wickerwork”), from Proto-Indo-European *grebʰ-, *gerbʰ- (“bunch, bundle, tuft, clump”), from *ger- (“to turn, twist”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Kräbbe, Krääb, Krääf (“crib”), West Frisian krêbe (“crib”), Dutch krib (“crib, manger”), German Krippe (“rack, crib”), Danish krybbe (“crib”), Icelandic krubba (“crib”). Doublet of crèche. The sense of ‘stealing, taking notes, plagiarize’ seems to have developed out of the verb. The criminal sense may derive from the 'basket' sense, circa the mid 18th century, in that a poacher could conceal poachings in such a basket (see the 1772 Samuel Foote quotation). The cheating sense probably derives from the criminal sense.