1827. Maginn, from Vidocq. Lend me a lift in the family way. You
may have a crib to stow in.
Verb (colloquial).—1. To steal or pilfer; used specifically of petty
thefts. For synonyms, see Prig.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Crib (v.): to with-hold, keep
back, pinch, or thieve a part out of money given to lay out for
necessaries.
1772. Foote Nabob, Act i. There are a brace of birds and a hare,
that I cribbed this morning out of a basket of game.
1846. T. Hood, Ode to Rae Wilson, Esqr., wks., vol. IV., p. 224.
Yet sure of Heaven themselves, as if they’d cribb’d Th’ impression
of St. Peter’s keys in wax.
1855. Robert Browning, Men and Women. Fra Lippo Lippi, ed. 1863, p.
351. Black and white I drew From good old gossips waiting to
confess Their cribs of barrel-droppings, candle-ends.
1889. Answers, 27 July, page 141, col. 1. He knew that if the
manuscript got about the Yankees would think it a smart thing to
crib it.
2. (school and University).—To use a translation; to cheat at an
examination; to plagiarise.
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 177. Cribbing his answers from a tiny
manual of knowledge, two inches by one-and-a-half in size, which he
hides under his blotting-paper.
1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. iii.
Finishing up with two highly moral lines extra, making ten in all,
which he cribbed entire from one of his books.
To crack a crib.—See under Crack.
Cribbage-Face and Cribbage-Faced, subs. and adj. phr.
(common).—Pock-marked and like a cribbage-board. Otherwise
colander-faced, crumpet-faced, pikelet-faced, and mockered (q.v.).
French Synonyms. Avoir un grenier à lentilles (popular: a cock-loft,
granary, or garret, for the storage of lentils); ne pas s’être assuré
contre la grêle (popular: grêle = hail); un morceau de gruyère
(popular: that cheese being honeycombed with holes); avoir un moule à
gaufres (popular: moule = mould; gaufre = a cake); une écumoire
(familiar: properly a skimmer); poèle à châtaignes (poèle = frying pan
and châtaignes = chestnuts; the colander-like shovel for roasting
chestnuts).
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cribbage-faced: marked with the
small-pox, the pits bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a
cribbage-board.
Cribber, subs. (military).—A grumbler. [A horse that gnaws his crib or
manger.] Cf., Crib-biter, and for synonyms, see Rusty-guts.
Cribbeys or Cribby-Islands, subs. (old).—Blind alleys, courts, and
bye-ways; Fr., culs-de-sac.
Cribbing, verbal subs. (old).—1. Food and Drink. Cf., Crib, sense 1.
1656. R. Brome, A Jovial Crew. For all this ben cribbing and Peck
let us then, Bowse a health to the gentry cofe of the ken.
2. (schools’ and University and general).—Stealing; purloining; using a
translation. Cf., Crib, subs., sense 4.
1862. Farrar, St. Winifred’s, ch. xxxv. They would not call it
stealing but bagging a thing, or, at the worst, cribbing
it—concealing the villainy under a new name.
Crib-Biter, subs. (common).—An inveterate grumbler. [Properly a horse
that worries his crib, rack, manger, or groom, and at the same time
draws in his breath so as to make the peculiar noise called
wind-sucking.] French equivalents are un gourgousseur; un rême; un
renâcleur; and un renaudeur.—See Cribber.
Crib-Cracker, subs. (general).—A housebreaker.
1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 11. The little boys look up
half with awe and half with admiration at the burly Sikes with his
flash style, and delight in gossip concerning his talents as a
crib-cracker, and his adventures as a pickpocket.
Crib-Cracking, verbal subs. (thieves’).—Housebreaking.
1852. Punch, vol. XXIII., p. 161. With higher ambition Bill Sykes
he burned, And becoming experter as he grew older, From cly-faking
to crib-cracking turned.
Cries.—See Street cries.
Crikey! Cracky! Cry! intj. (common).—Formerly, ‘a profane oath’; now a
mere expression of astonishment. [A corruption of ‘Christ.’]
1837. R. H. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 276. It
would make you exclaim, ’twould so forcibly strike ye, If a
Frenchman Superbe!—if an Englishman crikey!
1841. Comic Almanack, p. 275. Oh! crikey, Bill; vot a conch that
lady’s got!
1853. Diogenes, II., 54. O, crikey! the switching I got, At the
hand of the cruel old miser.
1888. W. E. Henley. ‘Culture in the Slums.’ ‘O crikey, Bill!’ she
says to me, she ses. ‘Look sharp,’ ses she, ‘with them there
sossiges.’
Crimini, Criminey, or Crimes!—See Crikey. [Possibly the latter usage
has been influenced by crimen meum, my fault.]
1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, Act iv., Sc. 1. Murder’d my
brother! O crimini!
1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xvi. ‘A monument of a knight-templar on
each side of a Grecian porch, and a Madonna on the top of it!—O
crimini!’
1841. The Comic Almanack, p. 280. ‘A Lament for Bartlemy Fair.’ Oh!
lawk; oh! dear; oh! crimeny me; what a downright sin and a shame.
Crimson. To make things look crimson, verbal phr. (American).—To
indulge in a drunken frolic; to paint the town red (q.v.)
Crimson Chitterling, subs. phr. (old).—The penis. Used by Urquhart. For
synonyms, see Creamstick.
Crincle-Pouch, subs. (old).—A sixpence. For synonyms, see Bender.
1593. ‘Bacchus’ Bountie,’ Harl. Misc., II., p. 270 [ed. 1808–11].
See then the goodnes of this so gracious a god, al yee, which in
the driest drought of summer, had rather shroude your throates with
a handfull of hemp, than with the expence of an odde crinclepouch,
wash yourselues within and without, and make yourselues as mery as
dawes.
Crinkum-Crankum, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. [Properly a winding
way.] For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
Crinkums, subs. (old).—A venereal disease. Cf., Crinkum-crankum. For
synonyms, see Ladies’ fever.
Crinoline, subs. (common).—A woman. For synonyms, see Petticoat.
Cripple, subs. (old).—1. A ‘snid’ (Scots) or sixpence.—[See quots.,
1785 and 1885.] For synonyms, see Bender.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cripple: six pence, that piece
being commonly much bent and distorted.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178, s.v.
1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 25, n. A bandy or cripple,
a sixpence.
1885. Household Words, 20 June, p. 155. The sixpence is a coin more
liable to bend than most others, so it is not surprising to find
that several of its popular names have reference to this weakness.
It is called a bandy, a ‘bender,’ a cripple.
2. (common).—An awkward oaf; also a dullard. Fr., malapatte (popular:
properly mal à la patte). [Figurative for one that creeps, limps, or
halts—whether physically or mentally.] Cf., sense 3, and Go it, you
cripples.
3. (Wellington College).—A dolt; literally one without a leg to stand
on. Cf., sense 2, and Go it, you cripples.
Go it, you cripples! phr. (general).—A sarcastic comment on strenuous
effort; frequently used without much sense of fitness; e.g., when the
person addressed is a capable athlete. Wooden legs are cheap is
sometimes added as an intensitive.
1840. Thackeray, Cox’s Diary. ‘Striking a balance,’ p. 229. ‘O!
come along,’ said Lord Lollypop, ‘come along this way, ma’am! Go
it, ye cripples.’
Crisp, subs. (popular).—A banknote. For synonyms, see Soft.
Crispin, subs. (common).—A shoemaker. [From Saints Crispin and
Crispianus, the patrons of the ‘gentle craft,’ i.e., shoemaking.]
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1861. Punch, vol. XLI., p. 246. Crispin, everybody knows to be a
name for a shoemaker.
St. Crispin’s Lance, subs. phr. (old).—An awl. [From Crispin (q.v.) +
lance, a weapon.] Fr., une lance.
Crispin’s Holiday, subs. phr. (old).—Every Monday throughout the year,
but most particularly the 25th of October, being the anniversary of
Crispinus and Crispianus.
Croak, subs. (thieves’).—A dying speech, especially the confession of a
murderer. Also the same as printed for sale in the streets by a ‘flying
stationer.’ [From the verbal sense (q.v.).]
1887. A. Barrère, Argot and Slang, p. 272. The criminal ... would
perhaps utter for the edification of the crowd his ‘tops, or
croaks,’ that is, his last dying speech.
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip. Go crying croaks, or
flash the drag.
Verb.—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.
Croaker, subs. (old).—1. A sixpence. For synonyms, see Bender.