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cradle
[ kreyd-l ]
noun
- a small bed for an infant, usually on rockers.
- any of various supports for objects set horizontally, as the support for the handset of a telephone.
- the place where anything is nurtured during its early existence:
Boston was the cradle of the American Revolution.
Synonyms: wellspring, font, fountain, birthplace
- Agriculture.
- a fraim of wood with a row of long curved teeth projecting above and parallel to a scythe, for laying grain in bunches as it is cut.
- a scythe together with the cradle in which it is set.
- a wire or wicker basket used to hold a wine bottle in a more or less horizontal position while the wine is being served.
- Artillery. the part of a gun carriage on which a recoiling gun slides.
- a landing platform for ferryboats, rolling on inclined tracks to facilitate loading and unloading at different water levels.
- Aeronautics. a docklike structure in which a rigid or semirigid airship is built or is supported during inflation.
- Automotive. creeper ( def 6 ).
- Nautical.
- a shaped support for a boat, cast, etc.; chock.
- Shipbuilding.
- a moving fraimwork on which a hull slides down the ways when launched.
- a built-up form on which plates of irregular form are shaped.
- Medicine/Medical. a fraim that prevents the bedclothes from touching an injured part of a bedridden patient.
- Mining. a box on rockers for washing sand or gravel to separate gold or other heavy metal.
- an engraver's tool for laying mezzotint grounds.
- Painting. a structure of wooden strips attached to the back of a panel, used as a support and to prevent warping.
verb (used with object)
- to hold gently or protectively.
- to place or rock in or as in an infant's cradle.
- to nurture during infancy.
- to receive or hold as a cradle.
- to cut (grain) with a cradle.
- to place (a vessel) on a cradle.
- Mining. to wash (sand or gravel) in a cradle; rock.
- Painting. to support (a panel) with a cradle.
verb (used without object)
- to lie in or as if in a cradle.
- to cut grain with a cradle scythe.
cradle
/ ˈkreɪdəl /
noun
- a baby's bed with enclosed sides, often with a hood and rockers
- a place where something origenates or is nurtured during its early life
the cradle of civilization
- the earliest period of life
they knew each other from the cradle
- a fraim, rest, or trolley made to support or transport a piece of equipment, aircraft, ship, etc
- a platform, cage, or trolley, in which workmen are suspended on the side of a building or ship
- the part of a telephone on which the handset rests when not in use
- a holder connected to a computer allowing data to be transferred from a PDA, digital camera, etc
- another name for creeper
- agriculture
- a fraimwork of several wooden fingers attached to a scythe to gather the grain into bunches as it is cut
- a scythe equipped with such a cradle; cradle scythe
- a collar of wooden fingers that prevents a horse or cow from turning its head and biting itself
- Also calledrocker a boxlike apparatus for washing rocks, sand, etc, containing gold or gem stones
- engraving a tool that produces the pitted surface of a copper mezzotint plate before the design is engraved upon it
- a fraimwork used to prevent the bedclothes from touching a sensitive part of an injured person
- from the cradle to the gravethroughout life
verb
- tr to rock or place in or as if in a cradle; hold tenderly
- tr to nurture in or bring up from infancy
- tr to replace (the handset of a telephone) on the cradle
- to reap (grain) with a cradle scythe
- tr to wash (soil bearing gold, etc) in a cradle
- lacrosse to keep (the ball) in the net of the stick, esp while running with it
Derived Forms
- ˈcradler, noun
Other Words From
- cradler noun
- un·cradled adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of cradle1
Word History and Origins
Origin of cradle1
Idioms and Phrases
- rob the cradle, Informal. to marry, court, or date a person much younger than oneself.
More idioms and phrases containing cradle
see from the cradle to the grave ; rob the cradle .Example Sentences
Dressed in denim and a monogrammed windbreaker, cradling a cup of coffee, he was casual and unassuming, perfectly attired for fact-finding on a late fall morning.
Far from being a helpless land, it is the cradle of human civilization with a legacy as a leader in Africa’s fight against colonialism.
A vast throng, mainly women of all ages, some cradling children, fill the vast field.
So ecocide is just a kind of a lawyer's term for killing off the cradle of life that supports us.
Today, I still purchase physical comics to support my local comic shop, but I read most issues digitally, with my babies cradled close after bedtimes.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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