Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An injurious habit of horses in which they bite at the edge of a feed trough or other object and swallow air at the same time.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An injurious habit of horses which are much in the stable, consisting in seizing with the teeth the manger, rack, or other object, and at the same time drawing in the breath with a peculiar noise known as wind-sucking. Also called cribbing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as cribbing, 4.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • When I glanced back, he was staring after me in amazement, so I looked up 142 out of curiosity and found it was a crib-biting point-to-pointer still a maiden at ten.

    Knockdown Francis, Dick 1974

  • Sidewalks were rebuilt, and many painted tree boxes appeared along the main street to save the remainder of the tree trunks from the teeth of crib-biting horses.

    Janice Day at Poketown Helen Beecher Long

  • It is very difficult to judge the age of horses that have deformed mouths or that are in the habit of crib-biting, because of the irregularity in the wear of the incisors.

    Common Diseases of Farm Animals R. A. Craig

  • No doubt crib-biting, nurse-biting and original sin in general are all strictly reducible from Darwinian principles; but don't by misadventure run against any academical facts.

    The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Huxley, Leonard 1900

  • Vice is crib-biting, or jibbing, or boring or summat o 'that kind.

    The Golden Calf 1875

  • No doubt crib-biting, nurse-biting and original sin in general are all strictly reducible from Darwinian principles; but don't by misadventure run against any academical facts.

    Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 1 Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • When I am ill (and consequently venomous), nothing satisfies me but gnawing at theology; it's a sort of crib-biting.

    Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 2 Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • Horses should always be cleaned in the open air, if the weather will permit; as they frequently hurt themselves against their stalls when cleaned in the stable, and sometimes acquire a habit of crib-biting.

    The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally Jane 1845

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