ENGLISH
REFERENCE

crib

n. countable
B1 Intermediate US //ˈkɹɪb// UK //kɹˈɪb// crib Archaic Informal Slang

n. a small bed for a baby. You use this word when talking about where a young child sleeps.

n. a small bed designed for an infant or young child.


SIMPLE

The baby sleeps in her crib.

CONTEXTUAL

We bought a wooden crib with white sheets for the nursery.

COMPLEX

The antique crib, carved from dark oak, stood in the corner of the room like a silent guardian of childhood memories.

Synonyms
Origin

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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