Cribbing

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈkɹɪbɪŋ/

Definitions

1. The process of taking or imitating another's original expressions without ownership rights A means of duplicating previously established content for personal use A common approach in educational settings where external sources are misappropriated for personal benefit
2. Acting to copy another's work improperly for personal gain ; a technique involving placing wooden wedges under logs or beams for support or movement
3. Engaging in unauthorized duplication of someone else's writing or ideas ; the practice of stabilizing or lifting heavy timber using wedge-shaped pieces

Etymology: The noun "crib" started out as a humble piece of furniture. Old English "crib" meant a couch, a bed, or a manger, and it is the same word as German "Krippe" and Dutch "krib", all descended from a Proto-Germanic term for wickerwork. The English word is a doublet of "crèche", which entered English from French by a different route, so the two are cousins sharing one ancestor. The sense of copying or cheating seems to have grown out of the verb, not the furniture. The criminal sense probably comes from the mid-18th-century "basket" meaning of crib, since a poacher could hide his catch in such a basket. A 1772 quotation from the playwright Samuel Foote shows that usage. The sense of cheating in examinations or games probably came later, derived from that criminal sense. The meaning of stabilizing timber with wedges is a separate, more literal use tied to the verb's sense of fitting something snugly into a frame.