crib
/kɹɪb/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.48 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A baby’s bed with high, often slatted, often moveable sides, suitable for a child who has outgrown a cradle or bassinet.
American usage; Countable; Uncountable
noun
A manger, a feeding trough for animals elevated off the earth or floor, especially one for fodder such as hay.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
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.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A small room or covered structure, especially one of rough construction, used for storage or penning animals.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "In two minutes I was kneeling by the child’s crib, and Sandy was dispatching servants here, there, and everywhere, all over the palace. I took in the situation almost at a glance -- membranous croup!"
- "a day or two afterwards I learned that Miss Temple, on returning to her own room at dawn, had found me laid in the little crib; my face against Helen Burns’s shoulder, my arms round her neck. I was asleep, and Helen was -- dead."
- "I began to think of my horse. He, however, like an old campaigner, had taken good care of himself. I found him paying assiduous attention to the crib of Indian corn, and dexterously drawing forth and munching the ears that protruded between the bars."
- "A kitchen, a meat-house, a dairy, a crib with two stalls in the rear, one for the horse the other for the cow, were the out-buildings"
- "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox."
- "The singers were in a crib of wirework (like a large meat-safe or bird-cage) in one corner"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- Proto-Indo-European *grebʰ-der. Proto-Indo-European *grébʰ-ōn ~ *grbʰ-n-ōs Proto-Germanic *krebô Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ Proto-West Germanic *kribbjā Old English cribb Middle English crib English crib 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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: crib, *kribbjā, *kribjǭ, *grebʰ-
Usage
- American usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- British usage
- Obsolete
- New Zealand usage
- Australian usage
- Canadian usage