No crib for a bed?

But what on earth's a crib, in our chosen carol?

Says the mother of all dictionaries, the OED (bold added):

I. 1. a. A barred receptacle for fodder used in cowsheds and fold-yards; also in fields, for beasts lying out during the winter; a CRATCH. (In nearly all early quots. applied to the manger in which the infant Christ was laid; cf. CRATCH n.)
a1000 Crist 1426 (Gr.) Ic læ{asg} cild{asg}eong on crybbe. c1200 ORMIN 3711 Te Laferrd Jesu Crist Wass le{ygh}{ygh}d inn asse cribbe. a1300 Cursor M. 11253 (Cott.) In a crib he sal be funden. 1340 HAMPOLE Pr. Consc. 5200 Born..and layd..In a cribbe, bytwen an ox and an asse. c1400 Apol. Loll. 97 {Th}e oxe knowi{th} his weldar, and {th}e as {th}e crib of his lord. 1535 COVERDALE Job xxxix. 9 Wyll the vnicorne be so tame as..to abyde still by thy cribbe? 1577 B. GOOGE Heresbach's Husb. III. (1586) 142b, Serpents, that many tymes lie hid under their [sheep's] Cribbes. 1602 SHAKES. Ham. v. ii. 87 Let a Beast be Lord of Beasts, and his Crib shall stand at the Kings Messe. 1712 POPE Messiah 79 The steer and lion at one crib shall meet. 1847 MARRYAT Childr. N. Forest v, The animal could move about a little and eat out of her crib. 1884 West Sussex Gaz. 25 Sept. Advt., Circular iron and oak bullock cribs.

b. (Orig. in R.C. Ch.) A representation of the manger in which the infant Christ was laid, erected in churches.
1885 Catholic Dict. s.v., The present custom of erecting a crib in the churches at Christmas time..began during the thirteenth century.

c. Astron. The star-cluster Præsepe in Cancer.
1551 RECORDE Cast. Knowl. (1556) 266 Cancer containing 8 stars, beside a cloudy tract which is named ye Manger or Crybbe. a1718 R. CUMBERLAND Orig. Gentium Antiq. (1724) 93 The constellation Cancer, in which the Aselli and their crib is plac'd.

2. ‘The stall or cabin of an ox’ (J.).
a1340 HAMPOLE Psalter 512 Nete sall noght be in kribbis. 1611 BIBLE Prov. xiv. 4 Where no Oxen are, the crib is cleane. 1841 LANE Arab. Nts. I. 13 The Merchant..went to the bull's crib, and sat down there, and the driver came and took out the bull. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 416/2 The calf-house..should be..divided into separate sparred cribs or hutches. 1884 Cheshire Gloss., Crib, a small cote to put young calves in.

3. a. A small habitation, cabin, hovel; a narrow room; fig. a confined space. In N.Z. now esp. a small house at the seaside or at a holiday resort.
1597 SHAKES. 2 Hen. IV, III. i. 9 Why rather (Sleepe) lyest thou in smoakie Cribs..Then in the perfum'd Chambers of the Great? 1840 CLOUGH Amours de Voy. I. 6 The world..Whithersoever we turn, still is the same narrow crib. 1862 C. R. THATCHER Dunedin Songster No. 1. 5 The weather and time had so peppered that tumbledown crib, I declare. 1886 BESANT Childr. Gibeon II. vi, There were no confessional cribs and no candles. 1887 HALL CAINE Deemster xxviii. 185 Shutting himself in this dusty crib, the Bishop drew from under the bed a glass-covered case. 1929 W. SMYTH Bonzer Jones xvii. 213 ‘Here's my crib,’ he announced. 1947 ‘A. P. GASKELL’ Big Game 88 If it's fine George will be taking them up to his crib. 1962 Guardian 21 July 6/4 An index to social status in New Zealand..is possession of the seaside bach (in Southland, the crib). 1963 Truth (N.Z.) 24 Sept., ‘You know my sea~side summer bach?’ ‘Bach? What the South Islanders call a crib?’ 1970 D. M. DAVIN Not Here, Not Now II. ix. 115 Then back to the crib again, set off the road in the bush.

b. Thieves' slang. A dwelling-house, shop, public-house, etc. to crack a crib: see CRACK v. 11.
1812 J. H. VAUX Flash Dict., Crib, a house, sometimes applied to shops. 1838 DICKENS O. Twist xix, Now, my dear, about that crib at Chertsey. 1844 J. T. J. HEWLETT Parsons & W. xxii, The grocer's crib, as he called it.

c. A lock-up; a bridewell. local.
1847-78 in HALLIWELL. 1879 in Shropshire Word-bk.

d. slang (chiefly U.S.). A saloon, ‘low dive’, or brothel. Also crib-house, -joint.
c1857 B. A. BAKER Glance at N.Y. 23 Let's take a drink; there's a crib open. 1882 Sydney Slang Dict. 3/2 Drum, or crib, house of ill repute. 1901 ‘J. FLYNT’ World of Graft 219 Crib, gambling dive. 1926 J. BLACK You can't Win (1927) xiv. 199 I'll make the cribs myself. I'm dynamite with them old brums in the cribs. 1930 J. DOS PASSOS 42nd Parallel 320 The little lighted cribhouses. 1932 B. DE VOTO Mark Twain's Amer. vi. 124 The palaces blended with scores of dance halls..parlor houses, cribs. 1958 P. GAMMOND et al. Decca Bk. Jazz iii. 42 Forced into the dives and crib-joints of the red-light district of New Orleans.

4. fig. A ‘berth’, ‘place’, situation. slang.
1865 HATTON Bitter Sweets vii, It's a snug crib this.

5. a. A small rectangular bed for a child, with barred or latticed sides. (Sometimes loosely = cradle.)
1649 Bury Wills (1850) 220 One trundle bedstead and an halfe trundle bedstead, a cribb. 1828 WEBSTER, Crib..6. A small frame for a child to sleep in. 1832 H. MARTINEAU Weal or Woe vii. 86 Fergus was kneeling at the foot of the child's crib. 1857 W. COLLINS Dead Secret (1861) 77 Having a nurse to engage and a crib to buy.

{dag}b. transf. Child, baby. Obs. Cf. CRIBBER 1.
1702 LADY M. COKE in Cowper MSS. II. 447 (Hist. MSS. Comm.) Your Crib is well, and all are yours. Ibid. 453 Inquire me out a nursery maid, because your crib is weaning.

6. fig. {dag}a. A close-fisted person, one who keeps a tight hold of what he has. Obs.
1622 MABBE tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. I. 251 That his wife be close-fisted, a very Crib.

b. dial., Austral., and N.Z. Food, provisions; a light meal or snack; a piece of bread, cake, etc. Freq. attrib.
1641 BROME Jov. Crew II. Wks. 1873 III. 388 Here's Pannum and Lap, and good Poplars of Yarrum To fill up the Crib, and to comfort the Quarron. 1825 JAMIESON Suppl. s.v., Haste ye, and gi'e me ma..crib, Guidwife. 1872 N. & Q. 4th Ser. IX. 47/1 The gift..was generally a small cake..and was called the ‘christening crib’{em}a crib of bread or cake being a provincialism for a bit of bread, &c. 1880 M. A. COURTNEY Gloss. Cornwall 15/2 Crib, a crust of bread; fragments of meat. ‘Eat up your cribs.’ 1881 RAYMOND Mining Gloss., Crib..3. A miner's luncheon. 1889 Daily News 4 Apr. 4/8 In the pocket of each of the garments was a pasty and a ‘crib’ (apparently a small loaf). 1904 ‘G. B. LANCASTER’ Sons o' Men 159 Sereld..growled because someone had spilt tobacco-ash into his crib{em}which is bushman for dinner. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 13 May 6/1 Half an hour's ‘crib’ time [at Blackball, N.Z.] is also granted. 1926 K. S. PRICHARD Working Bullocks xi. 108 Red picked up his crib-bag. 1928 J. DEVANNY Dawn Beloved xxx. 273 He stopped..to hang up his towel and crib tin. 1942 A. L. ROWSE Cornish Childhood ii. 30 He used to take it to work with him and at crib-time (i.e. lunch-time) would entertain his fellows with it. 1947 A. VOGT in D. Davin N.Z. Short Stories (1953) 364 Ben went to work [in the bush] each day like the rest of the men, with his crib and oil-skin. 1954 Coast to Coast 1953 37 Jacques was holding out his crib. ‘Time to eat.’.. Crib over, the men rolled cigarettes. 1971 J. TURNER Stone Dormitory iii. 30 ‘Just come in for me crib. It's time.’.. ‘It's ready for you, Tom,’ she said, putting the bread and cheese and tea before him.

II. {dag}7. a. A wickerwork basket, pannier, or the like. In quot. 1648 a bag. Obs.
1387 TREVISA Higden (Rolls) IV. 353 {Th}ey putte hym in a litel cribbe i-schape as a litel bote. 1398 {emem} Barth. De P.R. XIX. cxxviii. (1495) 934 Fiscella is a lytyll euenlonge crybbe or a panyer woue wyth smale roddes of wylow. 1648 DAVENANT Long Vac. London, With canvas crib To girdle tied..Where worms are put, which must small fish Betray at night to earthen dish. 1676 WORLIDGE Cyder (1691) 112 You may have a Basket or Crib..and put Straw round it in the inside.

b. The BIN used in hop-picking.
c1830 MRS. SHERWOOD in Houlston Tracts III. lxxii. 10 Come along this way to the crib (that is, the sheet or cloth into which the hop blossoms are cut).

{dag}8. A crate or measure of glass. Obs. Cf. CRATE 2b, CRADLE n. 6c.)
1688 R. HOLME Armoury III. 385/1 A Load of Glass is two Kribbs; a Krib is 100 or 150 Foot of cut Glass.

9. Salt-making. An apparatus like a hay-rack in which the salt is placed to drain after boiling. ? Obs.
c1682 J. COLLINS Making of Salt 54 The Liquor that Dreynes from the Salt in the Cribs is a sort of Bittern. 1753 CHAMBERS Cycl. Supp. s.v., Crib in the English Salt Works..These cribs are like hay-racks, wide at the top, and tapering to a narrow bottom, with wooden ribs..placed so close, that the salt cannot easily fall through them.

10. a. A wickerwork contrivance for catching salmon; a CRUIVE.
1873 Act 36-7 Vict. c. 71 Sched. III, License Duties..For each..weir..box, crib, or cruive. Ibid. §17 Any legal fishing mill dam not having a crib, box, or cruive.

b. The enclosure for trapped fish in a pound-net. U.S.
1873 Rep. U.S. Fish Commission I. 264 The pound-nets..have several parts, termed the ‘leader’, the ‘heart’, the ‘pot’, ‘bowl’, or ‘crib’, and the ‘tunnel’. a1884 KNIGHT Dict. Mech. Suppl. 231/1 Crib (Fishing), the bowl or pound of a Pound Net.

11. A framework of bars or spars for strengthening, support, etc.; see quots. Cf. CRADLE n. 6.
1693 Phil. Trans. XVII. 895 Preserving the Banks of Rivers, by building Wings or Cribs to break the force of the Water. 1708 S. MOLYNEUX Ibid. XXVI. 38 A large Tub..of Wood inclosed with a Crib made of Brick and Lime. 1883 F. M. CRAWFORD Mr. Isaacs iii. 49 As the crib holds the ship in her place while she is building.

12. Mining. A framework of timber, etc., lining a shaft, to prevent the earth from caving in, or water from trickling through.
1839 Ann. Reg. 41 It was necessary to construct what is termed a crib; that is a cylinder corresponding to the dimensions of the shaft. 1851 GREENWELL Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 19 Common cribs are circles of wood, usually oak, from 4 to 6 inches square, and are used to support the sides of a pit when the stone is bad. 1881 Pop. Sc. Monthly XIX. 28 A shaft or crib is sunk..to prevent the sides from caving in.

13. A rectangular frame of logs or beams strongly fastened together and secured under water to form a pier, dam, etc.; sometimes including the superstructure raised upon it. (Canada & U.S.)
1816 [see crib-dam]. 1867 Harper's Weekly 20 Apr. 252/4 The flood-gates of the ‘crib’ were opened. 1874 KNIGHT Dict. Mech., Crib..6. A structure of logs to be anchored with stones. Cribs are used for bridge-piers, ice-breakers, dams, etc. 1881 Proc. Inst. Civ. Engineers LXIII. 268 (Cribwork in Canada) Cribs are merely open or close boxes, made of timbers strongly framed together. 1884 Pall Mall G. 10 Oct. 7/2 Fourteen men were employed at a crib in the lake at the outer end of the tunnel.

14. A small raft of boards or staves to be floated down a small stream, a number of which are made up into a large raft. (Canada & U.S.)
1813 W. JOHNSON Reports X, Light cribs of boards would float over the dam in safety. 1880 Lumberman's Gaz. 28 Jan., When the streams get wide enough the ‘sticks’ are made into ‘cribs’, and these, again, are made up into ‘rafts’..Cribs are formed of about 20 sticks of timber fastened between two logs called ‘floats’.

15. A bin or place with sparred or slatted sides for storing Indian corn (= CORN-CRIBb); also for salt and other commodities. U.S.
1823 J. D. HUNTER Captiv. N. Amer. 258 The corn [is preserved] in cribs, constructed of small poles and bark of trees. 1828 WEBSTER, Crib..5. A small building, raised on posts, for storing Indian corn. 1864 Ibid., Crib..4. A box or bin for storing grain, salt, etc.

III. 16. Cards. a. The set of cards made up of two (or one) thrown out from each player's hand, and given to the dealer, in the game of cribbage. b. Also, short for CRIBBAGE. (colloq.)
1680 COTTON Compl. Gamester viii, Sometimes it so happens that he is both bilkt in hand and crib. 1870 HARDY & WARE Mod. Hoyle 79 (Cribbage) The players..each throw out two [cards] for the crib, face downwards..The four cards constituting ‘crib’ belong to the dealer. Ibid. 80 Having counted his hand, the dealer proceeds in like manner to count his crib. 1885 Standard 3 Apr. 2/6 He had played..at ‘whist’ and ‘crib’.

IV. Senses from CRIB v.

17. The act of ‘cribbing’; a petty theft. (See CRIB v. 7.) rare.
1855 BROWNING Fra Lippo 148 To confess Their cribs of barrel-droppings, candle-ends.

18. Something ‘cribbed’ or taken without acknowledgement, as a passage from an author; a plagiarism. (colloq.)
1834 MEDWIN Angler in Wales I. 207 That's a crib from Waller, I declare. 1876 A. M. FAIRBAIRN in Contemp. Rev. June 130 It was a crib from himself.

19. A translation of a classic or other work in a foreign language, for the illegitimate use of students. (colloq.)
1827 LYTTON Pelham I. ii. 11, I could read Greek fluently, and even translate it through the medium of the Latin version technically called a crib. 1861 HUGHES Tom Brown at Oxf. xxxix. (1889) 375 Schoolboys caught by their master using a crib.

20. A complaint, grumble. colloq.
1943 HUNT & PRINGLE Service Slang 26 People have their own pet cribs.

V. 21. attrib. and Comb., as crib timber-work (see sense 13); crib-bite v. intr., to have the practice or habit of crib-biting; crib-biter, a horse addicted to crib-biting; also fig.; also, a grumbler; crib-biting, the vice or morbid habit of seizing the manger (or other object) with the teeth and at the same time noisily drawing in the breath (wind-sucking); crib-breakwater U.S., a breakwater made of cribwork; crib-bridge, a bridge whose piers are formed of cribs (see CRIB n. 13); crib-cracker slang, a burglar (see CRIB n. 3b); so crib-cracking; crib-dam U.S., a dam formed of cribs; crib-muzzle, a muzzle worn by a horse to prevent crib-biting; crib-rail, a transverse member of the frame of a railway coach; crib-strap (see quot.); cribwork, work consisting or formed of cribs (sense 13); also attrib.
1844 *Crib-bite [see WIND-SUCK v.]. 1809 Sporting Mag. XXXIV. 190 A bay horse..found to be a *crib-biter. 1832 MARRYAT N. Forster xl, I have lately used iron pens, for I'm a devil of a crib-biter. 1860 HOTTEN Dict. Slang (ed. 2) 124 Crib biter, an inveterate grumbler; properly said of a horse which has this habit, a sign of its bad digestion. 1831 Ann. Reg. 25 Horses had the habit of *crib-biting in very different degrees. 1879 Rep. Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army II. 1588 (Knight), *Crib breakwater. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 8 Dec. 2/1 What military engineers call a ‘*crib’ bridge. 1879 Punch 3 May 201/1 A bludgeon as big As a *crib-cracker's nobby persuader. 1883 G. R. SIMS How the Poor Live ii. 10 His talents as a ‘cribcracker’, and his adventures as a pickpocket. 1906 Daily Chron. 5 Dec. 6/6 The house is adequately protected against burglars and is proof against the amateur crib-cracker. 1852 Punch 9 Oct. 161/1 He..From cly~faking to *crib-cracking turned. 1816 Niles' Reg. IX. Suppl. 164/2 These dams are built with timber, in the manner of *crib dams, secured to the rocks below with iron bolts. a1884 KNIGHT Dict. Mech. Suppl. 231/1 *Crib muzzle (Manége), a muzzle used to correct the equine habit of cribbing. 1958 Engineering 14 Mar. 344/1 The body pillars, cantrail and *cribrails are in 12 s.w.g. 1874 KNIGHT Dict. Mech., *Crib-strap (Menage), a neck-throttler for crib-biting and wind sucking horses. 1884 Harper's Mag. Sept. 621/2 Sluices..are constructed through a mass of *crib timber-work. 1873 ROBERTSON Engin. Notes 56 *Cribwork..consists of logs notched on to each other in layers at right angles. 1881 Proc. Inst. Civ. Engineers LXIII. 271 A cribwork pier is easily ripped up and removed by an ordinary spoon dredge.

DRAFT ADDITIONS MARCH 2002

crib, n.

* crib sheet n. = cheat sheet n. at CHEAT n.1 Additions; a short digest or summary of the salient information on a particular topic (such as on a single sheet of paper), for quick, easy assimilation.
a1940 ‘N. WEST’ Western Union Boy in Novels & Other Writings (1997) 425 He..decided to take no chances, so he went into his English 43 exam with a *crib sheet in his pocket. The exam was easy and he didn't have to use the crib sheet. 1964 in Jrnl. Higher Educ. 37 (1966) 261 In addition, he would make up a special location index which tells him precisely where the various crib sheets have been placed. 1988 Guardian (Nexis) 13 Feb., I am always grateful to BMW (UK) for providing a crib-sheet with its test cars, listing what options are fitted and what they cost. 2001 Time 21 May 22/1 Here's a crib sheet on the worst terrorist attack in American history... How the government won its conviction... What evidence did the jury never see?.. Could it have been a wider conspiracy?

As early as A.D. 1000 and 1200, a crib was synonymous with a manger: "A barred receptacle for fodder used in cowsheds and fold-yards; also in fields, for beasts lying out during the winter; a CRATCH. (In nearly all early quots. applied to the manger in which the infant Christ was laid; cf. CRATCH n.)"

But see meaning 5.a. By 1649 the term was applied to: "5. a. A small rectangular bed for a child, with barred or latticed sides. (Sometimes loosely = cradle.)"

So when Jesus lay in a manger, He had no crib (meaning 5.a.) for a bed but only a "crib" (meaning I.1.). Everybody confused yet?