different between crib vs cratch

English

Etymology

From Middle English crib, cribbe, from Old English crib, cryb, cribb, crybb (“couch, bed; manger, stall”), from Proto-Germanic *kribj? (“crib, wickerwork”), from Proto-Indo-European *greb?-, *gerb?- (“bunch, bundle, tuft, clump”), from *ger- (“to turn, twist”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian creb (“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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kr?b, IPA^(key): /k??b/
• Rhymes: -?b

Noun

crib (countable and uncountable, plural cribs)

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

   Synonym: cot (British and Southern Hemisphere)
2. (Britain) A bed for a child older than a baby.
   • 1848, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre.

     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.

3. (nautical) A small sleeping berth in a packet ship or other small vessel
4. A wicker basket; compare Moses 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.
   • Proverbs 14:4

     Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

9. A confined space, as with a cage or office-cubicle
10. (obsolete) A job, a position; (British), an appointment.
    • 1893,— Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Stockbroker’s Clerk”.

      but if I have lost my crib and get nothing in exchange I shall feel what a soft Johnny I have been.

11. A hovel, a roughly constructed building best suited to the shelter of animals but used for human habitation.
12. (slang) One’s residence, house or dwelling place, or usual place of resort.
13. 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.
14. (usually in the plural) 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.
15. (obsolete) A minor theft, extortion or embezzlement, with or without criminal intent.
16. (cribbage) The card game cribbage.
    • 1913 D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers.

      “May we play crib, Mrs. Radford?” he asked.

17. (cribbage) The cards discarded by players and used by the dealer.
18. (cryptography) A known piece of information corresponding to a section of encrypted text, that is then used to work out the remaining sections.
19. (southern New Zealand) A small holiday home, often near a beach and of simple construction.

    Synonym: bach (northern New Zealand)

20. (Australia, New Zealand) A packed lunch taken to work.
21. (Canada) A small raft made of timber.
22. (Britain, obsolete, thieves' cant) The stomach.
23. (slang) A cheat sheet or past test used by students; crib sheet.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

crib (third-person singular simple present cribs, present participle cribbing, simple past and past participle cribbed)

1. (transitive) To place or confine in a crib.
2. To shut up or confine in a narrow habitation; to cage; to cramp.
   • I. Taylor

     if only the vital energy be not cribbed or cramped
3. (transitive) 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.

4. (transitive, informal) To plagiarize; to copy; to cheat.
5. (intransitive) To install timber supports, as with cribbing.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To steal or embezzle, to cheat out of.
7. (India) To complain, to grumble
8. To crowd together, or to be confined, as if in a crib or in narrow accommodations.
9. (intransitive, of a horse) To seize the manger or other solid object with the teeth and draw in wind.

Derived terms

• cribber
• crib sheet

Translations

References

Anagrams

• BRIC, CBIR

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?æt?/

Etymology 1

From Middle English cratchen, cracchen (“to scratch”), alteration of *cratsen (“to scratch”), from Old Norse *kratsa or Middle Low German kratsen, krassen (“to scratch”), both ultimately from Old High German krazz?n, craz?n (“to scratch”), from Proto-Germanic *kratt?n? (“to scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gred-, *grod- (“to scratch, scrape”). Cognate with Icelandic krota (“to engrave”). Compare also Icelandic krassa (“to scrawl”), Danish kradse (“to scratch, scrape, claw”), Swedish kratsa (“to scratch”), Dutch kratsen (“to scratch”), German kratzen (“to scratch”).

Verb

cratch (third-person singular simple present cratches, present participle cratching, simple past and past participle cratched)

1. (obsolete) To scratch.

References

• An historical dictionary

Etymology 2

From Middle English cratche, cracche, crecche (“crib”), from Old French creche (“crib, manger”), from Frankish *krippja (“crib”), from Proto-Germanic *kribj?. More at creche, crib.

Noun

cratch (plural cratches)

1. (obsolete) A grated crib or manger.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, A Hymne of Heavenly Love

     Begin from first where He encradled was, / In simple cratch, wrapt in a wad of hay.

2. (nautical) The vertical planks at the forward end of the hold of a traditional English narrowboat which constrain the cargo and support the top plank or walkway.

Derived terms

• cratch cradle

Etymology 3

Noun

cratch (plural cratches)

1. A swelling on a horse's pastern, under the fetlock.