Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. campus) to cheat, to take or copy (a passage, a piece of translation etc) without acknowledgement, to plagiarize; thus cribbing n.

1778		‘Prologue to the Tragedy of Alfred’ in Lady’s Mag. Feb. : And crib the prologue from the bill of fare .
1781		Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 24-31 Mar. n.p.: Drive Emma W—m from thy head, / And cease to crib any more.
1837		Disraeli Venetia II 53: I was notorious at Eton for begging all their old manuscripts from boys [...] to crib from.
1837		T. Hood ‘Ode to Rae Wilson’ Works (1862) IV 224: Yet sure of heav’n themselves, as if they’d cribb’d Th’ impression of St. Peter’s keys in wax!
1841		Punch I 177: Cribbing his answers from a tiny manual of knowledge, two inches by one-and-a-half in size, which he hides under his barrel-droppings, candle-ends.
1858		F.W. Farrar Eric I 51: The ‘cribbing’ [...] was more flagrant than ever in the Upper Fourth.
1864		B. Hemyng Eton School Days 20: You are always cribbing something.
1878		‘’Arry on Himself’ in Punch 21 Dec. in P. Marks (2006) 6: They must crib from us ‘cads,’ my dear boy!
1882		Bristol Magpie 2 Nov. 9/1: So, read up Mr. Hardy's ‘Far from the Madding Crowd,’ and be prepared to draw your own conclusion as to the alleged ‘cribbing’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Apr. 17/2: We know Bobby cribs from us, but – bless you! – we don’t mind….
1890		H. Fludyer Letters 117: Two chaps got nailed for cribbing yesterday.
1900		Boys Of The Empire 11 Dec. 150: You haven’t cribbed any of it from Byron [...] have you?
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 387: Of course, now if I hand ’em in the old rhinoceros will think I cribbed ’em.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 435: It’s perfectly obvious that with the most inherent baseness he has cribbed some of my bestselling books, really gorgeous stuff, a perfect gem.
1933		F. Bason Diary I (1950) 69: It will be handy for young playwrights to crib Willie’s best lines.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 25 Aug. [synd. col.] This would be to prevent the gossip columnist from offering as his own fresh findings week-old items cribbed from the society and movie sections of his own rag.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 17: He was just smart enough never to crib from the same writer twice.
1956		Mad mag. Nov.–Dec. 41: Develop three methods for cribbing such as inserting scroll in empty wristwatch case.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 127: I cribbed most of that [i.e. a speech] from Henry Five, by William Shakespeare.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 109: Girls who lent him their homework to copy and let him crib off their tests.
1989		Hackworth & Sherman About Face (1991) 218: What with all the cheating and cribbing trouble at West Point of late [etc.].
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 crib n. To copy. For example on the bus on the way to school ‘Let me crib your homework and I’ll give you a pack of toffos?’. Also during exams either by furtive glances at the adjacent kid next to you (if possible you would try to position yourself next to the swottiest kid in the class) or assisted by crib notes (usually written on skin – for quick rub removal) or by crib sheets (small pieces of paper easily eaten if discovered).