Simple Definition of crèche
: a set of statues that represents the scene of Jesus Christ's birth and that is displayed during Christmas
: a place where young children are cared for during the day while their parents are working : a day care center
Full Definition of crèche
1 : a representation of the Nativity scene
2 : day nursery
3 : a foundling hospital
4 : a group of young animals (as penguins or bats) gathered in one place for care and protection usually by one or more adults
Examples of crèche in a sentence
<one of the first cities to establish crèches so that poor women with children could work outside of the home>
Did You Know?
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a cratch. That may not sound like a familiar translation of Luke 2:7, but back in the 1300s, the substitution of cratch for manger probably wouldn't have raised any eyebrows. Back then spelling was imprecise, and several different words and spellings, including cratch, cracche, crache, and crecche, were used to describe a trough for holding feed for livestock or to identify the manger where Jesus was laid. By the late 18th century, crèche (which we borrowed from French and now sometimes spell without the accent mark) had displaced those older forms, and the word had lost its former "manger" meaning, coming to refer instead to a representation of the Nativity scene itself.
Origin of crèche
French, from Old French creche manger, crib, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German krippa manger — more at crib
First Known Use: 1792
Seen and Heard
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