dib, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dib n.

[a corruption of SE division or divide]

1. a share.

1829		‘On the Prigging Lay’, translation of ‘Un jour à la Croix Rouge’ in Vidocq (1829) IV 263: Uncle open the door of your crib / If you’d share the swag, or have one dib.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 24: Dib, portion or share.
1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 51: I was being cut in on it [...] I was to get my dib.

2. (Anglo-Ind.) one rupee .

1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin II 10: ‘What did you give for him? [i.e. a horse] ‘Two hundred and fifty dibs’ (i.e. rupees).
1853		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Oct. 61/2: Of course I told a lot of legal fibs! / And will again for bright retaining dibs.
1879		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 131: ‘I’ll spare you ten dibs’.
1891		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 26 Oct. 1/4: And this poor warrior, like his mates, an impecunious mortal, / Grew fat upon Cordelia’s dibs. To him her wealth she brought all.
1912		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 4 Sept. 7/1: All live, and love and hate, and lie and toil and sweat and grind / In grilling plains of red hot sand / The wily dibs to find.

3. in pl., money; a dollar (cf. generic use dibbs n.).

1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 24: Dibs, money.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Situation Wanted’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 661: The best I can do is to stake him a few dibs.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 11: I am always willing to pick up a few dibbs.
1951		New Yorker 8 Dec. 81: Fifty sweet dibs! [W&F].

first dibs (n.) (also first dabs)

(orig. US) first choice, first turn to pick.

1943		Prairie Farmer 115 106: [headline] Government Has First Dibs on Commercial Pack.
1959		O, Maynard Amer. Ballet 99: Corps de ballet girls try to get first dibs at the smartest pieces of their regalia .
1977		M.C. Martin Chinatown’s Angry Angel 119: The older girls sprinted to the third floor, where by unspoken respect, the quartet got ‘first dibs’.
1983		S. King Christine 402: We’ve still got first dibs.
1999		Guardian Sport 12 Feb. 16: You can have the honour of first dibs.
2001		I. Rankin Falls 378: With experience you’d know how to bend a journalist’s will to your own, even if if meant a bribe of some kind: first dibs on some later story.
2007		N. McCall Them (2008) 106: Mr. Crawford promised that when he sells he’ll give me first dibs.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 81: Nae prizes for guessin whae’s oan first dabs.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 136: Natalie Wood [is] hot to trot [...] Biff’s got first dibs.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 773: [I]f they didn’t get first dibs with the ladies they noted down registration numbers.

have dibs on (n.)

(orig. US) to bagsy, to choose or pick in advance [NB UK public school dib up, to share (Marples 1940)].

1953		R. Heinlein Assignment in Eternity 54: Remember, I’ve got dibs on her.
1965		E. Bombeck At Wit’s End (1979) 115: I got dibs on the last black olive.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 209: Pea, anybody got dibs on your water?
1987		C. Hiaasen Double Whammy (1990) 75: A Bible college in Leesburg had dibs on that one.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 305: Demencio’s already got dibs on the Mother Mary.
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 124: Barry had dibs on the spot.
2010		K. Richards Life 328: We get free dibs on your bag and you can have Debbie.