# crèche
## English
### Alternative forms

* creche

### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French crèche (“manger”), from Frankish *krippija, *kribbija, from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ. Doublet of crib.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɹɛʃ/, /kɹeɪʃ/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛʃ, -eɪʃ

### Noun

crèche (plural crèches)
* A representation of the nativity scene.
** 2007, Clyde A. Bonar, Amen, I Say to You, page 666:At last, all was complete. The creche at Greccio looked like a new Bethlehem. The baby Jesus would be placed in the manger at midnight Mass.
* (UK, Ireland) A day nursery.
    They drop their two-year-old off at the crèche in the morning before they go to work.
** 2012, Roni Jay, The 10 Most Important Things You Can Do For Your Children:If you leave the kids in the creche for one morning on your week's holiday, and they are OK with that, then it's fine.
* (historical) A hospital for orphaned infants; a foundling hospital.
** 1894, Amos Griswold Warner, American Charities: A Study in Philanthropy and Economics, page 272:One road leads to desertion of the child in a convenient hallway; another to the creche of a foundling hospital; a third, to a boarding home, good or indifferent, for the child.
** 1973, Wayne Dennis, Children of the Crèche, page 74:In line with this policy, a couple could adopt a Crèche foundling only if one or both of them were Roman Catholics.
* (collective, marine biology) A group of young who stay together for protection.

#### Derived terms

* crèchemate

#### Translations
### Further reading

* crèche on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* “crèche”, in Collins English Dictionary.
* “crèche, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* “crèche”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* “crèche”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* “crèche” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.

### Anagrams

* Creech

## Dutch
### Etymology

Borrowed from French crèche, from Middle French [Term?], from Old French creche, cresche (“manger, feeding trough”), from Late Latin cripia (“feeding trough”), from Frankish *krippija, *kribbija (“crib”), from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ (“crib”), from Proto-Indo-European *g(')rībh- (“basket, net”). Doublet of kribbe.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /krɛʃ/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: crè‧che
* Homophone: crash

### Noun

crèche f (plural crèches)
* a day nursery for small children until age 3 in Belgium (Flanders) or age 4 in the Netherlands, when the children begin kleuterschool (nursery school/kindergarten) or, in the Netherlands, basisschool (primary school, which, in the Netherlands, begins at age 4 since August 1985, when kleuterschool was abolished and became a compulsory part of the primary school)
    Synonyms: kinderdagverblijf, (Flanders) kinderkribbe

#### Hypernyms

* kinderopvang

#### Descendants

* → Papiamentu: krèsh

## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Middle French [Term?], from Old French creche, cresche (“manger, feeding trough”), from Late Latin cripia (“feeding trough”), from Frankish *krippija, *kribbija (“crib”), from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ (“crib”), from Proto-Indo-European *g(')rībh- (“basket, net”).
Cognate with Old High German krippa, kripja (“crib”) (German Krippe), Old English cribb, crybb (“crib”), Dutch kribbe (“crib”), Danish krybbe, Swedish krubba, Irish grib. More at crib

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kʁɛʃ/
* Audio (Paris):(file)
* Homophones: crèchent, crèches

### Noun

crèche f (plural crèches)
* crèche (the Nativity scene)
* crèche (day nursery)

#### Descendants

* → English: creche
* → Portuguese: creche

### Verb

crèche
* inflection of crécher:
** first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
** second-person singular imperative

### Further reading

* “crèche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.