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Cradle   /krˈeɪdəl/   Listen
noun
Cradle  n.  
1.
A bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinging on pivots; hence, the place of origin, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence; as, a cradle of crime; the cradle of liberty. "The cradle that received thee at thy birth." "No sooner was I crept out of my cradle But I was made a king, at nine months old."
2.
Infancy, or very early life. "From their cradles bred together." "A form of worship in which they had been educated from their cradles."
3.
(Agric.) An implement consisting of a broad scythe for cutting grain, with a set of long fingers parallel to the scythe, designed to receive the grain, and to lay it evenly in a swath.
4.
(Engraving) A tool used in mezzotint engraving, which, by a rocking motion, raises burrs on the surface of the plate, so preparing the ground.
5.
A framework of timbers, or iron bars, moving upon ways or rollers, used to support, lift, or carry ships or other vessels, heavy guns, etc., as up an inclined plane, or across a strip of land, or in launching a ship.
6.
(Med.)
(a)
A case for a broken or dislocated limb.
(b)
A frame to keep the bedclothes from contact with the person.
7.
(Mining)
(a)
A machine on rockers, used in washing out auriferous earth; also called a rocker. (U.S.)
(b)
A suspended scaffold used in shafts.
8.
(Carp.) The ribbing for vaulted ceilings and arches intended to be covered with plaster.
9.
(Naut.) The basket or apparatus in which, when a line has been made fast to a wrecked ship from the shore, the people are brought off from the wreck.
Cat's cradle. See under Cat.
Cradle hole, a sunken place in a road, caused by thawing, or by travel over a soft spot.
Cradle scythe, a broad scythe used in a cradle for cutting grain.


verb
Cradle  v. t.  (past & past part. cradled; pres. part. cradling)  
1.
To lay to rest, or rock, as in a cradle; to lull or quiet, as by rocking. "It cradles their fears to sleep."
2.
To nurse or train in infancy. "He that hath been cradled in majesty will not leave the throne to play with beggars."
3.
To cut and lay with a cradle, as grain.
4.
To transport a vessel by means of a cradle. "In Lombardy... boats are cradled and transported over the grade."
To cradle a picture, to put ribs across the back of a picture, to prevent the panels from warping.


Cradle  v. i.  To lie or lodge, as in a cradle. "Withered roots and husks wherein the acorn cradled."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Cradle" Quotes from Famous Books



... cheap little rocking-chair, and a looking-glass and some pictures that were presents from Mary's friends and sister. She had her mantel-shelf ornaments and crockery and nick-nacks packed away, in the linen and old clothes, in a big tub made of half a cask, and a box that had been Jim's cradle. The live stock was a cat in one box, and in another an old rooster, and three hens that formed cliques, two against one, turn about, as three of the same sex will do all over the world. I had my old cattle-dog, and of course a pup on the load—I always had a pup that I gave away, or sold and didn't ...
— Joe Wilson and His Mates • Henry Lawson
... got to some distance, they tied her feet together, and thrusting a stick under, they carried her off on their shoulders at full trot. This riding on a stick—which was very different from lying in a cradle—soon brought the sow to her senses, who began to behave in a very obstreperous and disagreeable manner, and the faster they went the more obstreperous and disagreeable did she become. The thieves now began to repent of the ...
— The Story of Tim • Anonymous
... the size it had reached would have broken any jaw to remove in the lump; but he seemed to have no idea of parting with his treasure, which, to do him justice, he rolled about with as much ease as if he had had a monkey-teacher before him from his cradle; nor did it prevent his betting away in a style that quite astonished a ...
— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray
... made any improvement that is generally acknowledged, since men ceased to be troglodytes and nomads, in the old-fashioned gamut of flats and sharps, which attunes into irregular social jog-trot all the generations that pass from the cradle to the grave; still, "the desire for something have have not" impels all the energies that keep us in movement, for good or for ill, according to the checks or the directions ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... the freshness of leaves, flowers, and carolling birds, as if raising them from an annual interment in winter's cold grave, and then thinking of the destiny of his own race, how many generations have ripened and decayed, how many human crops have been harvested from the cradle and planted in the tomb, might naturally especially if he had any thing of the poet's associating and creative mind say to himself, Are we altogether perishable dust, or are we seed sown for higher fields, ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger


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