cradle

USKRAY-duhl/ˈkɹeɪdəl/

24 meanings of cradle

1
nouncountable
A small bed for a baby that rocks on curved supports or swings on pivots.
She rocked the cradle with one foot while she read.
The antique cradle hung between two carved posts and swung at the lightest touch.
Similarbassinet, crib
Note
The word's other uses grow from the baby's bed, and the name began with a basket: Old English cradol goes back to a Germanic word for a wicker basket, and cart is a relative. Later cradles borrow one of two things from it: the rocking (the engraver's tool, the gold-washer) or the holding (the shipyard frame, the telephone rest).
2
hold in armsverbtransitive
To hold or wrap something gently and protectively.
He sat on the curb, cradling his injured wrist against his chest.
Collectors cradle the old manuscripts in soft cloth before moving them.
Similarhold, clasp, nurse, hug, wrap
3
verbtransitive
To hold or contain something in a cradle, or as if in one.
A ring of mountains cradles the lake on three sides.
Padded arms on the stand cradle the guitar so it cannot tip over.
Similarhold, embrace, surround, support, cup
4
birthplacenounfigurativelycountable
The place where something began, or where it was nurtured and protected in its earliest days.
Mesopotamia is often called the cradle of civilization.
The old port city became a cradle of jazz, sending its musicians all over the country.
Similarbirthplace, nursery
Note
It mostly comes as the cradle of plus what was born there: the cradle of liberty, of jazz, of civilization. The picture is of nursing, not just starting, and it need not flatter: a cradle of crime is a place that breeds and shelters wrongdoing.
5
rock a babyverbtransitive
To rock a baby gently until it falls asleep.
Every night she would cradle the twins to sleep, humming as she rocked them.
The grandmother cradled the fussy infant to sleep in her old rocking chair.
Similarrock, lull
6
phone restnouncountable
A rest that holds a telephone receiver, or a similar stand for certain computer hardware.
He set the receiver back in its cradle and stared at the wall.
At the end of each shift, the handheld scanners go back into their charging cradles.
Similardock, stand, base
7
earliest yearsnounfiguratively
Infancy, or the earliest part of a person's life.
She had been taught to play the violin practically from the cradle.
The new welfare system promised to support citizens from the cradle to the grave.
Similarinfancy, birth
Note
Here infancy becomes a starting point: from the cradle to the grave spans a whole life, and from the cradle on its own means since earliest childhood, as when people are raised in a faith from the cradle. Shared upbringings can take the plural, as in As You Like It's "from their cradles bred together."
8
sootheverbtransitive
To lull or calm someone, as if by rocking them.
The slow rhythm of the waves cradled her into a dreamless sleep.
Low, steady voices can cradle frightened children into silence.
Similarlull, soothe, calm, rock
9
verbtransitive
To nurse or bring up a child, shaping them from infancy.
The couple hoped to cradle their daughter in the old faith, teaching her its prayers before she could walk.
Cradled in privilege, the young heir had never once worried about money.
Similarnurture, raise, rear
Note
The passive is the natural home of this sense, followed by what surrounded someone from birth: cradled in majesty, cradled in privilege. Joseph Glanvill's Scepsis Scientifica (1665) draws the moral that such a start is hard to leave: "He that hath been cradled in majesty will not leave the throne to play with beggars."
10
blanket framenouncountable
A frame placed over an injured person in bed to keep the bedclothes off sensitive parts of the body.
After surgery, a wire cradle kept the blankets off his bandaged knee.
The burns unit kept several bed cradles ready for new patients.

11
limb casenouncountable
A protective case that holds a broken or dislocated limb in place.
The medic strapped the broken leg into a padded cradle for the ride to the hospital.
Once the dislocated arm was put back, it rested in a light cradle while it healed.
12
frame on rollersnouncountable
A framework of timber or iron bars running on ways or rollers, used to support, lift, or move ships, heavy guns, and similar loads, as in launching.
At the launch, the new ship slid down the slipway on its cradle and into the river.
Soldiers hauled the heavy gun up the steep ramp to the fort on a cradle of timbers.
13
carry boatsverbtransitive
To transport a boat or ship by carrying it on a cradle.
Canal crews cradle each barge and haul it up the incline to the upper channel.
The fishing boats were cradled and dragged across the narrow neck of land between the two bays.
14
wine bottle holdernouncountable
A mechanical device that holds a bottle of wine and tilts it so the wine can be decanted.
The sommelier set the vintage port in the cradle and turned the crank, tilting the bottle toward the decanter by degrees.
Collectors use a cradle so the sediment stays behind when an old wine is poured off.
15
rescue basketnouncountable
A basket or similar apparatus that carries people off a wrecked ship along a line made fast between the wreck and the shore.
Lifesavers hauled the cradle out along the line and brought the passengers back two at a time.
Once the rope was secured to the stranded ship, the crew were brought ashore in a cradle.
Note
Getting the line aboard is the first battle: shore rescuers have often fired it out to the wreck from a small gun or rocket, then hauled the cradle out and back along it with survivors inside. The breeches buoy, a ring buoy fitted with canvas legs, is a device built for the same job.
16
lacrosseverbintransitive
In lacrosse, to rock the stick back and forth so that centrifugal force keeps the ball in its head.
Lacrosse beginners often cradle too hard and lose the ball on their first stride.
A defender checked his stick the moment he stopped cradling.
Note
Lacrosse players carry the ball this way: it keeps possession while they run, dodge or take a check. The motion comes mostly from the wrists and forearms, with the stick held upright and close to the body, and a player who stops cradling is easy to dispossess.
17
grain scythenouncountable
A broad scythe for cutting grain, with long fingers set parallel to the blade that catch the cut grain and lay it evenly in a swath.
Farmhands with cradles worked across the field in a staggered line, leaving swaths of wheat behind them.
The old cradle hanging in the barn still had every one of its long wooden fingers.
18
cut grainverbtransitive
To cut grain and lay it down with a cradle.
Neighbors gathered each July to help cradle the oats on the hillside fields.
He cradled the rye in long, even strokes and left it lying in swaths to dry.
Similarreap, mow
19
engraving toolnouncountable
A tool used in mezzotint engraving that is rocked across the plate, raising burrs on its surface to prepare the ground.
She worked the cradle over the copper plate in overlapping passes until the whole surface was evenly roughened.
The printmaker sharpened the teeth of her cradle before starting a new plate.
20
gold washingnouncountable
A machine set on rockers, used for washing gold-bearing earth to separate out the gold.
The prospectors took turns rocking the cradle while one of them poured in buckets of creek water.
By evening the cradle had yielded only a thimbleful of fine gold.
Note
Diggers often called it a rocker, and it does a gold pan's work on a larger scale: gravel and water go in while it is rocked from side to side, the heavy gold settles behind cleats called riffles, and lighter sand and mud run out the lower end. Harriet W. Daly, writing in 1887 of the Northern Territory, describes river gold washed out with one.
21
mine platformnouncountable
A scaffold suspended in a mine shaft as a platform to work from.
Two timbermen worked from a cradle hung halfway down the shaft, replacing rotten supports.
The winch operator raised the cradle a few feet so the crew could reach the next set of bolts.
Note
Miners keep it distinct from the cage: the cage carries people up and down the shaft, while the cradle is a platform to work from, hung on ropes or chains worked from above and halted at any depth while the crew line, timber or repair the walls.
22
ceiling framenouncountable
A framework of ribs for a vaulted ceiling or arch, built to be covered with plaster.
The carpenters fixed the cradle for the vaulted ceiling before the plasterers arrived.
When the old plaster fell away, the wooden cradle behind the arch was exposed.
Note
A carpenter's frame that ends up hidden: the ribs, usually light timber cut to the curve of the vault or arch, are covered with laths and then plaster. A ceiling that looks like solid masonry from below may be nothing but wood and plaster, which is why a fallen patch can expose the cradle behind it.
23
jugglingnouncountable
A hand position in which a contact ball rests steadily on the back of the hand.
From a palm spin, he let the ball roll over his knuckles and settle into a cradle.
Holding a steady cradle is one of the first skills new contact jugglers practice.
Note
Contact juggling moves a ball, often a clear acrylic sphere, by rolling it over the hands, arms and body instead of throwing it. The cradle is a still point in that flow, a moment's rest that lets the performer set up the next roll.
24
brace a paintingverbtransitive
To fix ribs across the back of a panel painting to keep its panels from warping.
Conservators decided to cradle the altarpiece after its oak boards began to bow.
A nineteenth-century restorer cradled the portrait, gluing a lattice of wooden bars to its back.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English cradel, from Old English cradol, from Proto-West Germanic *kradul, from Proto-Germanic *kradulaz, from *kradô ("(wicker) basket"). It is related to cart.