[f. CRIB sb.]
† 1. intr. ? To feed at a crib. (In quot. humorously of persons.) Obs. rare.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 89. I fare fulle ylle, At youre mangere … Syrs, let us cryb furst for oone thyng or oder.
2. trans. To shut up as in a crib or small compartment; to confine within a small space or narrow limits; to hamper. (In modern use generally as an echo of Shaks.; cf. CABIN v. 3.)
1605. Shaks., Macb., III. iv. 24. Now I am cabin’d, crib’d, confin’d, bound in.
1743. E. Poston, Pratler (1747), I. 151. How must that which is boundless … be confin’d and cribb’d up within the narrow Limits of my … finite Capacity!
1826. De Quincey, Lessing, Wks. XIII. 236. The mind of Lessing was not cribbed and cabined within the narrow sphere of others.
1876. Blackie, Songs Relig. & Life, 34. Vainly the narrow wit of narrow men Within the walls which priestly lips have blest … Would crib thy presence.
b. To lock up, imprison. local. (CRIB sb. 3 c.)
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xxxii. They should be arrested, cribbed, tried, and brought in for Botany Bay.
3. intr. To lie as in a crib. (CRIB sb. 5.) Obs.
1661. Gauden, Anti-Baal-Berith, 35 (L.). Who sought to make the … bishops to crib in a Presbyterian trundle-bed.
4. trans. To furnish with cribs. (CRIB sb. 1.)
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., v. § 2 (1681), 67. A large Sheep-house for the housing of Sheep in winter, which may be Sheep-cribbed round about and in the middle too, to fother them therein.
5. To furnish with a crib or framework of timber. (CRIB sb. 11–13.)
1861. Times, 29 Aug., 7/1. The [oil-] wells are sunk and cribbed to a depth of from 40 to 60 feet till the rock is reached. Ibid. (1862), 21 Jan., 10/4. The shaft of the [coal-] pit was cribbed round with oak timber.
6. To make up (timber) into cribs or small rafts. U.S. (CRIB sb. 14.)
1876. in Minnesota Rep. (1880), XXV. 524. Any person who may do … any manual labour in cutting, cribbing or towing any logs or timber in this state.
7. colloq. To pilfer, purloin, steal; to appropriate furtively (a small part of anything). [Prob. orig. thieves’ slang, connected with sense 7 of the sb.]
1748. Dyche, Dict., Crib, to withhold, keep back, pinch, or thieve a part out of money given to lay out for necessaries.
1772. Foote, Nabob, I. Wks. 1799, II. 298. A brace of birds and a hare, that I cribbed this morning out of a basket of game.
1795. Hull Advertiser, 31 Oct., 4/2. We would never have cribb’d your papers.
1825. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides, 28. Bits of ground cribbed … at different times from the forest.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Mrs. Hallib., II. xii. 204. We crib the time from play-hours.
1884. Sir W. Harcourt, in Daily News, 13 Oct., 2/5. Lord Salisbury is always counting upon his fingers … how many Tory seats he can crib there.
absol. 1760. C. Johnston, Chrysal (1822), I. 174. Cribbing from the till.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 8. And both of old were known to Crib, And both were very apt to fib!
8. colloq. To take or copy (a passage, a piece of translation, etc.) without acknowledgement, and use as one’s own; to plagiarize.
1778. J. Home, Alfred, Prol. Wks. (1798), II. p. ix. And crib the Prologue from the bill of fare.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xlvii. Flogged for cribbing another boy’s verses.
1862. Sala, Accepted Addr., 168. Antiquarian anecdotes (cribbed from Hone, etc.).
absol. 1862. ‘Shirley’ (J. Skelton), Nugæ Crit., vi. 266. I rather suspect that Homer … cribbed without the slightest compunction from every old ballad that came in his way.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 Oct., 3/1. At school … it was dishonourable to ‘crib’ because it would be to unfairly injure another orothers.
9. intr. Of horses: To practise crib-biting.
1864. in Webster.
1892. Field, 26 Nov., 820/2. No horse would crib after using this strap.
