Dibs is a claim staked on something before anybody else. Call dibs, I have dibs, dibs on the window seat.
It is playground language that adults keep using, and it works by being said first and out loud — calling dibs is the whole of the claim. It is American in origin and is always plural, so it is dibs and never a dib.
1noundibsA claim staked on something before anybody else.
“I called dibs on the front seat before anyone else got to the car.”
dibs is a claim.
Of disputed origin, from the early nineteenth century, most likely from dibstones, a children's game played with counters.
Built from
Since the early 19th century, of disputed origin. Most commonly thought to be from dibstones (“counters used in a game with the same name”). Also from dib (“to tap”) or related to northern English dip (“small depression in the ground”), or a shortened version of divide.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA