Definition of "cradle"

cradle

/ˈkɹeɪdəl/

noun
plural cradles
1. A bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinging on pivots.
  Quotations
  No sooner was I crept out of my cradle / But I was made a king, at nine months old.
  1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene ix]
  the cradle that received thee at thy birth
  1782, William Cowper, Expostulation
  Hush-a-by, baby, upon the tree-top; / When the wind blows the cradle will rock; / When the bough breaks the cradle will fall; / Down will come cradle and baby and all.
  1805, Songs for the Nursery, page 5
2. (figuratively) The place of origin, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence.
3. (figuratively) Infancy, or very early life.
  Quotations
  from their cradles bred together
  c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]
  a form of worship in which they had been educated from their cradle
  1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707
4. 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.
5. A tool used in mezzotint engraving, which, by a rocking motion, raises burrs on the surface of the plate, so preparing the ground.
6. 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.
7. A case for a broken or dislocated limb.
8. A frame to keep the bedclothes from contact with the sensitive parts of an injured person.
9. (mining) A machine on rockers, used in washing out auriferous earth.
  Quotations
  Rough men brought pickle bottles full of nuggets. Mysterious dirty-looking calico bags were opened, disclosing small quantities of water-worn flaky gold, which had been washed out of the beds of rivers with a cradle.
  1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 146
10. (mining) A suspended scaffold used in shafts.
11. (carpentry) A ribbing for vaulted ceilings and arches intended to be covered with plaster.
  Quotations
  A strong iron bar is fixed at the top of each cradle, to which the suspending chains are attached; the latter pass over the sheaves, and the cradles are kept in a horizontal position, by means of an adjusting rod placed above them
  1853, Samuel Charles Brees, The Illustrated Glossary of Practical Architecture and Civil Engineering
12. (nautical) A 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.
13. A rest for the receiver of a telephone, or for certain computer hardware.
14. (contact juggling) A hand position allowing a contact ball to be held steadily on the back of the hand.
15. A mechanical device for tilting and decanting a bottle of wine.
verb
third-person singular simple present cradles, present participle cradling, simple past and past participle cradled
1. (transitive) To contain in or as if in a cradle.
2. (transitive) To rock (a baby to sleep).
3. (transitive) To wrap protectively, to hold gently and protectively.
  Quotations
  The little girl was left alone in her tiny bedroom, cradling her dead hamster.
  2012, David Walliams, Ratburger
4. To lull or quieten, as if by rocking.
5. To nurse or train in infancy.
  Quotations
  He that hath been cradled in majesty will not leave the throne to play with beggars.
  1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […]
6. (lacrosse) To rock the lacrosse stick back and forth in order to keep the ball in the head by means of centrifugal force.
7. To cut and lay (grain) with a cradle.
8. To transport a vessel by means of a cradle.
9. To put ribs across the back of (a picture), to prevent the panels from warping.

Definition of "cradle"

cradle

noun

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verb

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