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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

crib.

A baby’s bed with high, often slatted, often moveable sides, suitable for a child who has outgrown a cradle or bassinet.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kɹɪb/
  1. A baby’s bed with high, often slatted, often moveable sides, suitable for a child who has outgrown a cradle or bassinet.

    US · countable · uncountable
  2. A bed for a child older than a baby.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  3. A small sleeping berth in a packet or other small vessel.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A wicker basket.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A manger, a feeding trough for animals elevated off the earth or floor, especially one for fodder such as hay.

    countable · uncountable
  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.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A bin for drying or storing grain, such as a corn crib.

    countable · uncountable
  8. A small room or covered structure, especially one of rough construction, used for storage or penning animals.

    countable · uncountable
  9. A confined space, such as a cage or office cubicle.

    countable · uncountable
  10. A job, a position; (UK) an appointment.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  11. A hovel, a roughly constructed building best suited to the shelter of animals but used for human habitation.

    countable · uncountable
  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.

    countable · uncountable
  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.

    countable · plural-normally · uncountable
  14. A minor theft, extortion or embezzlement, with or without criminal intent.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  15. The card game cribbage.

    countable · uncountable
  16. The cards discarded by players and used by the dealer, akin to the kitty or widow in other card games.

    countable · uncountable
  17. A known piece of information corresponding to a section of encrypted text, that is then used to work out the remaining sections.

    countable · uncountable
  18. A small holiday home, often near a beach and of simple construction.

    New-Zealand · Southern · countable · uncountable
  19. A snack or packed lunch, especially as taken to work to eat during a break.

    Australia · New-Zealand · countable · uncountable
  20. A small raft made of timber.

    Canada · countable · uncountable
  21. The stomach.

    UK · countable · obsolete · uncountable
  22. A literal translation, usually of a work originally in Latin or Ancient Greek.

    countable · uncountable
  23. A cheat sheet or past test used by students; crib sheet.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  24. One’s residence, house or dwelling place, or usual place of resort.

    countable · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/kɹɪb/
  1. To place or confine in a crib.

    transitive
  2. To shut up or confine in a narrow habitation; to cage; to cramp.

  3. 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.

    transitive
    I cribbed the recipe from the Food Network site, but made a few changes of my own.
  4. To plagiarize; to copy; to cheat.

    informal · transitive
  5. To install timber supports, as with cribbing.

    intransitive
  6. To steal or embezzle.

    archaic · transitive
  7. To complain, to grumble

    India
  8. To crowd together, or to be confined, as if in a crib or in narrow accommodations.

  9. To seize the manger or other solid object with the teeth and draw in wind.

    intransitive
  10. To use a known piece of information corresponding to a section of encrypted text, to work out the remaining sections.

Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.