▪ I. cradle, n.
(ˈkreɪd(ə)l)
Forms: 1 cradel, -ol, 3–7 cradel(e, 4 (cradyl, Sc. kardil), 4–6 cradil(le, 4–5 kradel(l, 5–7 cradell(e, 5– cradle; 4–6 credil(le, -dyl(l(e, -del, 5 Sc. creddil(l, 7 credle, 7 (9 dial.) craddle, 9 dial. creddle.
[OE. cradol, beside which there was perh. a parallel form *crædel whence northern ME. credil, credel, mod.Sc. and north. Eng. creddle. Derivation uncertain.
Usually compared with OHG. chratto, cratto, MHG. kratte ‘basket, panier, creel’ which, with the synonymous OHG. c(h)rezzo, MHG. chrezze, kreize, Ger. krätze, kretze (having also, Grimm, Krätze I. 3, the sense ‘cradle’), appears to go back to an ablaut-stem *krat-, krad. From this, OE. cradol, cradel might be a diminutive formation, lit. ‘little basket’: cf. mod. bassinet.
The various Celtic derivations conjectured, e.g. from Welsh crȳd, ‘shake, shakes, ague’, now also in N. Wales ‘cradle’, from Gael. creathall (ˈkrɛal), cradle, etc., have no etymological value. Craidhal sometimes erroneously cited as Irish, is a bad spelling of Gael. creathall, given by O'Reilly from Shaw.]
I. 1. a. A little bed or cot for an infant: properly, one mounted on rockers, but often extended to a swing-cot, or a simple cot or basket-bed that is neither rocked nor swung.
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker I. 124 Cunabulum, cradel. a 1225 Ancr. R. 82 Heo makeð of hire tunge cradel to þes deofles bearn, & rockeð hit ᵹeorneliche ase nurice. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 243 In hir credille ȝing tille Inglond scho cam. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. x. 79 Wakynge a nyghtes..to rocke þe cradel. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 101 Credel, or cradel, crepundium. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 358 The..valliaunt warriour..once..lay crying in a wicker cradle. 1674 tr. Scheffer's Lapland xxvi. 123 The rocking the infant in his cradle follows next. 1748 F. Smith Voy. Disc. N.-W. Pass. 211 The Women carry these Cradles at their Backs, with the Child's Back to theirs. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop x, He rocked the cradle with his foot. Mod. Proverb, She who rocks the cradle rules the world. |
| fig. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. i. 20 Wilt thou..rock his Braines, In Cradle of the rude imperious Surge. 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. iii. iv, To rock your baby thoughts in the cradle of sleepe. 1835 Lytton Rienzi ii. iv, To rock them..in the cradle of their false security. |
b. Applied to a piece of silver plate, or the like, presented to the wife of a mayor to whom a child is born during his period of office.
Originally a cradle, or the model of one, for which something else is now often substituted.
| 1863 Illustr. Lond. News 16 Jan. (Hoppe), The Lady Mayoress of Dublin, having given birth to a child during her husband's year of office as Mayor, has been presented with a silver cradle. The gift is really a case, but on such occasions it is always termed a ‘Cradle’. 1880 M'chester City News 4 Dec., At the Annual dinner of the City Council..Alderman Pattison the ex-Mayor, was presented with a silver cradle..It is a pretty conceit, this custom of presenting a silver cradle to a chief Magistrate on the occasion of a birth in his family during his year of office. |
2. In various phrases, taken as the symbol of infancy or of the first period or stage of existence;
e.g. from the (first, or very) cradle,
to stifle in the cradle,
watch over the cradle, etc.
attrib. phr. cradle-to-grave. (
cf. quot. 1709.)
| 1555 Eden Decades 110 Wherwith the stomakes of owr people..haue euer byn noorisshed euen from their cradelles. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxix. (1887) 186 To keepe a countenaunce farre aboue the common, euen from the first cradle. 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. 10 In the Latine wee haue been exercised almost from our verie cradle. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 153 Now this infamous treason was known..but all the difficulty was how to stifle it in the Cradle. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 52 ¶4 A modest Fellow never has a Doubt from his Cradle to his Grave. 1795 Burke Corr. IV. 309 To watch over the cradle of those seminaries. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 12 That the Norman gentlemen were orators from the cradle. 1884 D. Hunter tr. Reuss's Hist. Canon iv. 61 Churches whose origin goes back to the cradle of Christianity. 1943 Time 22 Mar. 13 Sir William Beveridge, author of the British ‘cradle-to-grave’ social security report. 1951 Amer. Speech XXVI. 39 He shifts easily from such levels as cant to slang or colloquialism... While such cradle-to-grave lexicography must be impressive to the uninitiate, it may also reflect an assurance born largely of scissors and paste. 1962 C. Walsh Utopia to Nightmare vi. 76 Everyone has cradle-to-grave security. |
3. fig. The place or region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. x. 64 Sith to thee is unknowne the cradle of thy brood. 1628 Coke On Litt. Pref., Our labors are but the cradles of the law. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) I. Pref. 5 Egypt that served at first as the cradle of the holy nation. 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 20 The cradle of literature and art. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. vi. 407 Wessex the cradle of the royal house. |
4. Applied
poetically to that which serves as a couch or place of repose.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 80 Swaggering..So neere the Cradle of the Faierie Queene? 1592 ― Ven. & Ad. 1185 In this hollow cradle [the bosom] take thy rest My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night. 1790 Cowper Odyss. iv. 506 Four cradles in the sand she scoop'd. |
5. Naut. ‘A standing bedstead for a wounded seaman, instead of a hammock’ (Crabb).
| 1803 Naval Chron. IX. 259 Captain Merville..gave him that night one of the ship's company's cradles. 1867 in Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. |
II. Technical applications to things having the structure, appearance, use, or rocking motion of the child's cradle.
6. Any framework of bars, cords, rods, etc. united by lateral ties; a grating, or hurdle-like structure:
spec. a. A framework or grating placed round anything to protect it;
b. a supporting framework;
c. a frame in which glaziers carry glass; a crate of glass;
d. a basket-like grating or framework; a cresset;
e. a suspended scaffolding or stage used by workmen on buildings, in mines, etc.;
f. in
Coach-building (see
quot. 1794);
† g. the bed or carriage of a cannon (
quot. 1497);
h. the ‘rest’ or support for a telephone receiver not in use;
i. Cricket. a device used to deflect a ball thrown upon it in practising short-range fielding.
| 1379 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 103 Et de j Credel. 1497 on Ld. Treas. Acc. Scot. I. 348 Giffin to pynouris to bere the treis to be Mons new cradil to hir. Ibid. 349, xiij stane of irne, to make grath to Mons new cradill. 1538 Aberdeen Reg. V. 16 (Jam.) Ane cradill of glass. 1561 Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden) 102 For makinge a new cradle for the bere. Ibid. 130 For makinge of a cradelle to goe about the steple. 1611 Markham Country Content. i. xvi. (1668) 78 Set a little cradle of limed straws about his seat. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 201 Carefully protect..your Ranunculus's..covering them with Mattresses supported on Cradles of Hoops. 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 81 The Iron-grate or Cradle that holds the burning Coals. 1679 Plot Staffordsh. (1686) 280 An old Man..that carryed a cradle of glasses at his back. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts 49 Men place cradles upon high trees in marish regions, that storks may breed upon them. 1694 Acct. Sev. Late Voy. ii. (1711) 171 From the Water to the Cradle, (that is the round Circle that goeth round about the Middle of the Mast, and is made in the shape of a Basket). 1695 Kennett Par. Antiq. Gloss. s.v. Carecta, A cradle..applied to some other utensils that carry or bear any thing. As in the North, a dish-cradle, for the setting up wooden dishes or trenchers. 1742 Bp. Wilson in Keble Life xxiii. (1863) 800 My proposal to dry corn-mows (by a sort of cradle perforating them to ensure ventilation). 1771 Batchelor (1773) I. 256 Mr. F. mounted on the box, driving a stage coach, with Mr. P-ns-by in the cradle. 1794 W. Felton Carriages (1801) I. 130 A cradle is a leather platform, made to receive the seat. Coachboxes are not complete without cradles and seats. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 20 These pieces of wood being placed upon moveable cradles made of hammered iron. 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. II. 65 You must see to the creddles..I can't have my young oaks barked. Ibid. III. 195 The iron cradle in which the warning-light had often burned. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Cradle..8 A suspended scaffold used by miners. 1879 Thomson & Tait Nat. Phil. I. i. 486 Each of the counterpoises is equal to twice the weight of one of the pulleys with its sliding cradle. 1884 J. Mackintosh Hist. Civiliz. Scot. III. xxix. 329 The Wemyss glass-work..The cradles contained fifteen wisp. 1929 P.O. Electr. Engin. Jrnl. XXII. 193/1 With the P.O. type [of telephone set] a disconnection could only be produced when the microtelephone was replaced on the cradle in a very violent manner. 1934 Times 1 May 6/5 Slip catches were flying off the cradle and there was fielding practice. 1953 J. Mortimer Like Men Betrayed x. 136 Kit put the telephone back in the cradle. 1959 D. Beaty Cone of Silence xiv. 158 The sharp click of the receiver returning to its cradle. |
7. Husb. A light frame of wood attached to a scythe, having a row of long curved teeth parallel to the blade, to lay the corn more evenly in the swathe; ‘a three forked instrument of wood on which the corn is caught as it falls from the sithe’ (
Tusser Redivivus 1710).
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 37 A cradle for barlie, with rubstone and sand. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 49 Corne sythes haue allwayes cradles, for carryinge of the corne handsomely to the sweathbalke. 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 255 Which [barley] they mow with a sithe without a cradle. 1750 Ellis Mod. Husbandm. IV. ii. 44 Barley..is mown by the scythe and cradle. c 1818 Mrs. Carey Tour in France i. (1823) 15 The scythes..are very light, with a little cradle attached. 1866 Thoreau Yankee in Canada iii. 56 Wishing to learn if they used the cradle..I set up the knives and forks on the blade of the sickle to represent one. |
8. Surg. A protecting framework of different kinds for an injured limb, etc. (
a) A series of arches of wire or wood, connected by longitudinal strips, to sustain the pressure of the bedclothes. (
b) A framework in which an injured limb may be slung.
| 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 44 The sick Person may at once enjoy the Convenience of a Cradle. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v., A Surgeon's Cradle..to lay a broken Leg in. 1847 South tr. Chelius' Surg. I. 511 For the more effectual cooling of the limb a cradle should be kept over it. 1870 T. Holmes Syst. Surg. (ed. 2) V. 886 The limb is then slung in a simple cradle. 1883 Braithwaite Retrospect Med. LXXXVI. 167 The cradles for the knee and ankle are made of wood. |
b. A frame placed round the neck of an animal to prevent its biting an injury or sore.
| 1831 Youatt Horse xviii. 323 The possibility of blemishing himself should be prevented by a cradle or wooden necklace, consisting of round strips of wood, strung together, reaching from the lower jaw to the chest. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 206/2 Cradle, a frame encircling the neck of a horse. |
9. Naut. The framework on which a ship rests during construction or repairs, and on which she slides at launching. Also, that in which a vessel lies in a way or slip, or in a canal-lift (
cf. coffer 9); and other analogous applications.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. i. 1 A cradel is a frame of timber, made along a ship..for the more ease and safty in lanching. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Coites, the ways, or cradles, upon which a ship..descends, when she is..launched. 1775 N. D. Falck Day's Diving Vess. 50 There are different kinds of cradles..made use of for weighing of vessels; one sort is made of four cables of equal length. 1817 Blackw. Mag. I. 547/1 The Kent, of 80 guns, was..securely placed in a cradle for repair. 1852 S. C. Brees Gloss. Pract. Archit. 126 Cradle, or Coffer, the framework employed in perpendicular lifts, for holding the boats, and conveying them from one pond to the other. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 223/2 The ‘cradles’ must be fitted..between the bottom of the ship and the slidingway. |
10. An appliance in which a person or thing is swung or carried.
a. The apparatus in which a person is drawn from a wreck to a place of safety.
b. ‘A machine made of stout sail-cloth, for the purpose of shipping and unshipping horses’ (Crabb
Techn. Dict. 1823).
| 1839 36 Years of Seafaring life 268 They hauled the lines in..the cradle [was] sent along, and by this means thirteen persons were saved. |
† 11. The part of a cross-bow on which the missile rested.
Obs. 12. Arch. and
Building. (See
quots.; also
coffer 5 a.)
| 1823 Crabb Techn. Dict., Cradle (Archit.) vide Coffer. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Cradle (Carpentry), the rough framework or bracketing forming ribbing for vaulting ceilings and arches intended to be covered with plaster. 1875 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Cradle, a name sometimes given to a centering of ribs and lattice for turning culverts. |
13. Engraving. A chisel-like tool with a serrated edge, which is ‘rocked’ to and fro over the surface of the metal plate, to produce a mezzotint ground.
| 1788–9 Howard Encycl. I. 619 Cradle, among engravers, is the name of an instrument used in scraping mezzotintos and preparing the plate. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts s.v. Engraving II. 288 This operation is called laying the ground; it is performed by rocking the cradle to and fro. 1883 J. C. Smith Brit. Mezzotinto Portr. iv. ii. p. xxiii, The instruments used in mezzotinto engraving consist of the cradle, or rocking-tool, the scraper, etc. |
14. Gold-mining. A trough on rockers in which auriferous earth or sand is shaken in water, in order to separate and collect the gold.
| 1849 Illustr. Lond. News 17 Nov. 325/1 (Let. fr. Gold Diggings) Two men can keep each other steadily at work, the one digging and carrying the earth in a bucket, and the other washing and rocking the cradle. 1852 Motley Lett. (1889) I. 146 Whether I shall at last find a few grains of pure gold in my cradle. 1883 Century Mag. Jan., The Cradle or rocker is the rudest..of all machines for the separation of gold. |
15. See cat's cradle.
III. attrib. and
Comb. 16. General:
a. attributive, as (sense 1)
cradle-babe,
cradle-bed,
cradle-child,
cradle-clothes,
† cradle-clout,
cradle-dream,
cradle-fellow,
cradle-head,
cradle-life,
cradle-melody,
cradle-necessaries,
cradle-practise,
cradle-side,
cradle-throne,
cradle-time,
cradle-tune; (sense 7)
cradle-bar;
b. objective, as
cradle-dealer,
cradle-keeper,
cradle-plunderer,
cradle-robber,
cradle-rocker;
c. locative, as
cradle-sworn,
cradle-tombed.
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 392 As milde and gentle as the *Cradle-babe. |
| a 1847 Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor II. xvii. 451 She took her little infant..and laid her asleep upon the *cradle-bed. 1868 Ld. Houghton Select. 210 Beside the downy cradle-bed. |
| 1014 Wulfstan Hom. xxxiii. (1883) 158 *Cradolcild geþeowode þurh wælhreowe unlaȝa. 1832 J. Bree St. Herbert's Isle 55 Though a cradle⁓child misfortune threw me on the shoals of life. |
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. i. 88 That some Night-tripping-Faiery, had exchang'd In *Cradle-clothes, our Children where they lay. |
| 1838 J. Grant Sk. Lond. 333 To the profession of a *cradle dealer. |
| 1845 G. Murray Islaford 55 The Bethlehem-song that hushed our *cradle-dreams. |
| 1847 Mrs. Sherwood in Life xxxi. 538 With him who had been my *cradle-fellow. |
| 1864 Tennyson Sea Dreams 277 The woman..half embraced the basket *cradle-head. |
| 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 164 Cunina, the *cradle-keeper and wich-chaser. |
| 1882–3 Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. III. 2138 Christian art in Rome, where it had its *cradle-life. |
| 1851 D. Jerrold St. Giles x. 100 It had been a *cradle melody to him. |
| 1552 Huloet, *Cradle necessaries, or all thinges pertaynyng to the swathlynge of Infantes. |
| 1548 Udall Erasm. Par., Luke 190 b, An infaunte in the *cradle place. |
| 1864 W. Whitby Amer. Slav. 187 We have..*cradle-plunderers for church members. |
| 1631 Massinger Emp. East iv. iv, The cure of the gout..without boast be it said, my *cradlepractice. |
| 1920 S. Lewis Main St. xxxii. 389 Darned if this bunch of *cradle-robbers didn't get hold of some young kids. |
| 1888 Ohio Archæol. & Hist. Quarterly June 105 Nations now gather to the *cradleside of any new-born thought. |
| 1891 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 547 A *cradle-sworn conspiracy To set the world awry. |
| 1846 Keble Lyra Innoc. iii. x. 10 That Saint..who to Jesus' *cradle-throne Led us first. |
| 1586 Warner Alb. Eng. i. iii. (R.), Hercules [of] whose famous acts..the first but not the least In *cradle-time befell. 1868 Whittier Among the Hills xli, As free as if from cradle-time We two had played together. |
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. Babylon 511 One in the feeble birth becomming old, Is *cradle-toomb'd. |
| 1880 Contemp. Rev. Mar. 417 Ears whose *cradle-tune had been the beat Of ocean-waves. |
17. Special
Comb.:
† cradle-band,
-bands, swaddling cloth, or bands;
† cradle-barn, cradle-child;
cradle-board, among N. American Indians a board to which an infant is strapped; also
attrib.;
cradle-books = incunabula 2;
cradle-cannon Billiards, a series of cannons with the two object-balls close on either side of a corner-pocket;
cradle cap,
orig. U.S., an area of yellowish or brownish greasy-looking scales that sometimes forms on the top of a baby's head; the condition of having this, seborrhœic eczema of the scalp in a baby;
cradle Catholic, one who is born into the Roman Catholic church; a Catholic ‘from the cradle’;
† cradle-chimney (see
quot.);
cradle-drill, a rock-drill supported on a cradle-like trough;
cradle-heap,
-hill (
U.S.) a hillock formed by the fallen trunk of a tree;
cradle-holding, a name for land held in
Borough-English;
cradle-hole (
U.S.), a depression in a road; also a spot from which the frost is melting;
cradle-joint, a joint allowing something to swing or oscillate;
cradle-knoll U.S., a small knoll, as on a logging road;
cradle-land, the land in which a people dwell in their earliest times;
cradle-man, one who uses a cradle-scythe, a cradler;
† cradle-piece, a piece cut out of a quill in making a pen;
cradle-printing-machine, ‘a printing machine in which the cylinder has only a half revolution, which gives it a rocking or cradle-like motion’ (Ogilvie);
cradle-rocker, (
a)
= rocker1 2 b; (
b) one who rocks a child's cradle; similarly
cradle-rocking;
cradle-roof, a roof, in shape like a half cylinder, divided into panels by wooden ribs;
cradle-scale, ‘a pair of scales for weighing sacks of corn in a mill’ (Evans
Leicestersh. Gloss.);
cradle-scythe, a scythe fitted with a cradle (in sense 7);
cradle-snatcher, one who weds, or is enamoured of, a much younger person,
slang (
orig. U.S.); so
cradle-snatch v.,
cradle-snatching vbl. n.;
cradle-song, a song sung to a child in the cradle, a lullaby;
† cradle-tooth, a rib of the cradle of a scythe;
cradle-vault (see
quot. and
cf. cradle-roof);
† cradle-walk, a garden walk over-arched with clipped yew or the like;
† cradle-witted a., having the wits of an infant.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. ix. (1495) 195 The nouryce bindeth the chylde togyders wyth *cradylbondes. c 1475 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 794/1 Hec fassia, credylbond. 1552 Huloet, Cradle bande, instita. |
| c 1300 Havelok 1912 He..made hem rowte Als he weren *kradelbarnes. |
| 1879 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. VIII. 341 Cranial modification adopted by the Chinooks and other Flat-head Indians..may be confidently ascribed to the undesigned pressure of the *cradle-board on a head of brachycephalic type. 1942 Antiquity XVI. 94 It [sc. a skull] belongs to a woman 30 to 35 years old, and shows cradle-board flattening. 1956 E. Wilson Red, Black, Blond & Olive i. 49 A baby on a ‘cradle-board’. Wrapped up and strapped to this wooden back, the children can be laid down to sleep or stood up against the wall. |
| 1902 Daily Chron. 7 Nov. 3/3 The whole of this second volume is devoted to Incunabula—the ‘*Cradle books’—the first fruits of the early presses. 1927 Publishers' Weekly 31 Dec. 2315/1 Black letter books and cradle books. |
| 1907 Westm. Gaz. 6 Mar. 10/1 The ‘*cradle-cannon’ has been responsible for another extraordinary break. |
| 1890 Billings Med. Dict. I. 342/2 *Cradle-cap, crusts of seborrhœa on heads of young infants. 1912 A. M. Alberty Truth about Baby xviii. 94 There will appear on the infant's head a heavy, scaly-looking substance commonly called the ‘cradle cap’. 1932 F. H. Bartlett Infants & Children xviii. 372 Use oil instead of soap and water on the scalp until ‘cradlecap’ has been cleared. 1944 A & B. Bundesen Baby Man. ii. 259 A crust called ‘cradle cap’ may form on the head. 1975 H. Jolly Bk. Child Care xxxi. 400 Cradle cap may appear on the heads of the best-washed babies. |
| 1952 R. Macaulay Let. 25 July (1961) 342 The very nice, intelligent, *cradle-Catholic talks Controller at the B.B.C. 1965 Guardian 10 Feb. 8/3 She and her three brothers..were all cradle Catholics, her grandparents having come into the Church. |
| 1825–79 Jamieson, *Cradle-Chimlay, the large oblong cottage grate, open at all sides, used in what is called a round-about fireside. |
| 1884 R. Hunt British Mining 526 A single-acting *cradle-drill mounted on a stretcher bar for sinking shafts. |
| 1830 Galt Lawrie T. I. 186 It was then but the mere blazed line of what was to be a road; stumps and *cradle heaps, mud-holes and miry swails, succeeded one another. |
| 1855 Haliburton Nat. & Hum. Nat. II. 374 The bye-road was so full of stumps and *cradle-hills, it was impossible to drive in it. |
| 1882 F. Pollock in Macm. Mag. XLVI. 360 note, The land is known..as *cradle-holding in some parts of the south. |
| 1854 Thoreau Walden 316 Deep ruts and ‘*cradle-holes’ were worn in the ice. |
| 1867 J. Hogg Microsc. i. iii. 190 A small tube..connected to a stout pin by means of a *cradle-joint. |
| 1897 R. E. Robinson Uncle Lisha's Outing v. 32 There were moss-covered *cradle-knolls and mouldering trunks of the old trees whose uprooting had formed them. 1969 L. G. Sorden Lumberjack Lingo 28 Cradle knolls, small knolls or mounds of earth that require grading in the construction of logging roads. |
| 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 37 The position of Egypt between the *cradle lands of the human race and the African continent. |
| 1889 P. A. Bruce Plantation Negro 197 *Cradlemen, ditchers, assorters of tobacco are paid higher for the same..time. |
| 1727 W. Mather Yng. Man's Comp. 76 Enter your Knife sloping..about twice the breadth of the Quill..and cut away the *Cradle-piece. |
| 1795 S. J. Pratt Gleanings through Wales I. vi. 53 The little *cradle-rocker, was singing a lullaby to the suckling. 1891 Hardy Tess iii, The cradle-rockers had done hard duty for so many years, under the weight of so many children, on that flagstone floor, that they were worn nearly flat. 1907 Daily Chron. 28 Aug. 6/7 How many of the cradle-rockers would gladly help to emancipate their sisters, but cannot. |
| 1878 Design & Work 16 Feb. 213/3 *Cradle-Rocking... An American invention for rocking a cradle. 1891 Hardy Tess iii, The cradle-rocking and the song would cease simultaneously for a moment. |
| 1845 Ecclesiologist IV. 282 The *cradle roof of the chancel still remains; some of the bosses are very good. 1875 Gwilt Archit. §2052 h, The framing of cradle roofs, with king-posts carried upon the tie-beams. |
| 1669–81 Worlidge Dict. Rust., A cradle is a frame of wood fixed to a sythe for the mowing of corn..it is then called a *Cradle-sythe. 1822 J. Flint Lett. fr. Amer. 99 The axe, the pick-axe, and the cradle-scythe. |
| 1938 D. Smith Dear Octopus iii. i. 98, I may be neurotic but I've never *cradle-snatched my brother-in-law. 1967 J. Aiken Ribs of Death i. 11, I don't usually cradlesnatch. But there was something about you that made me think you were older. |
| 1925 N.Y. Times 8 Sept. 2/2 ‘*Cradle Snatchers’ is concerned with the activities of three wives. 1965 R. Erskine Passion Flowers in Business xi. 142 Crispin asked me to dance. ‘Cradle-snatcher,’ said Miranda nastily. |
| 1933 E. A. Robertson Ordinary Families viii. 189 Our jokes..were generally about *cradle-snatching, because Dru was two years older than Basil. 1958 Osborne & Creighton Epitaph G. Dillon i. 26 So you've taken to cradle-snatching, have you. Not content with taking another woman's husband, you have to pick up a ‘young gentleman’ as well. |
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. iv. (1495) 19 Nouryces vse lullynges and other *cradyl songes to pleyse the wyttes of the chylde. 1889 Spectator 9 Nov. 636/1 It is remarkable..that Watts, who was a bachelor, has written the loveliest cradle-song in the language. |
| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 120 The smallest sort of them for harrowe-spindles, some for *cradle-teeth; and some..for plough-staffes. |
| 1875 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., *Cradle Vault, a term used, but improperly, to denote a cylindric vault. |
| 1662 Evelyn Diary 9 June (D.), The *cradle-walk of hornebeame in the garden is..very observable. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) III. lxxxi. 124 The garden laid out in a cradle-walk, and intervening parterres. |
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia ii. 222 Who..Though *cradle-witted, must not honor lose. |
▪ II. cradle, v. (
ˈkreɪd(ə)l)
[f. prec. n.] 1. a. trans. To lay or place in, or as in, a cradle; to rock to sleep.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 1707 The catyfest creatur þat credylytt was euer. a 1700 Dryden (J.), Convey'd to earth and cradled in a tomb. c 1714 Arbuthnot, etc. Mart. Scrib. i. iii, He shall be cradled in my ancient shield. 1856 E. Capern Poems (ed. 2) 10 We'll cradle up our infant child, And take our evening's ramble. 1864 Tennyson Sea Dreams 57 The babe..cradled near them, wail'd and woke The mother. |
| fig. 1659 Lovelace Poems (1864) 207 Ere the morn cradles the moon. 1800 Moore Anacreon iv. 6 Let me have a silver bowl, Where I may cradle all my soul. |
b. To receive or hold as a cradle.
| 1872 Holland Marb. Proph. 82 For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king. |
† 2. intr. (for
refl.) To lie as in a cradle.
Obs.| 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 464 Wither'd roots, and huskes Wherein the Acorne cradled. |
3. a. trans. To nurture, shelter, or rear in infancy, or in the earliest stage.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage 34 Cain..cradled yet in his fathers houshold. 1793 Burke Rem. Policy of Allies Wks. 1842 I. 606 A commonwealth in a manner cradled in war. 1840 Hood Up Rhine 192 The house that cradled Prince Metternich. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 165 A fear in which they have been cradled. 1865 Union Rev. III. 263 Wesleyan Methodism, if not born, was cradled in Lincolnshire. |
b. to cradle into: to rock or lull
into; to nurture
into from the cradle.
| 1819 Shelley Julian & M. 545 Most wretched men Are cradled into poetry by wrong. 1833 Chalmers Const. Man (1835) I. iv. 177 The conscience is cradled into a state of stupefaction. |
4. Husb. To mow (corn, etc.) with a cradle-scythe. Also
absol. (
dial. craddle.)
| 1750 Ellis Mod. Husbandm. V. ii. 61 The art of cradling corn. 1835 Tait's Mag. II. 149 A rye field..which he had..let to be craddled. 1838 Hawthorne Amer. Note-Bks. (1883) 153 A man with a cradle over his shoulder, having been cradling oats. 1856 Olmsted Slave States 203 One quarter of an acre a day was secured for each able hand engaged in cradling, raking, and binding. |
5. a. To set or support, in or on a cradle; to raise a boat or ship to a higher level by a cradle.
| 1775 N. D. Falck Day's Diving Vess. 50 A method that promises better success..namely, cradling the object. 1823 W. Scoresby Jrnl. 305 The ship being firmly cradled upon the tongues of ice. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. s.v. Cradle, The locks are insufficient or absent, and boats are cradled and transported over the grade. |
b. spec. To replace (a telephone receiver) on its ‘cradle’ or ‘rest’.
| 1956 R. Fuller Image of a Society viii. 211 Rose cradled the receiver with the mingled disappointment and relief of the thwarted telephonist. 1969 R. Stark Blackbird (1970) ix. 56 ‘I wouldnt have believed it,’ Ken said, and cradled the phone. |
6. To support the back of (a picture, panel, etc.) by longitudinal ribs and transverse slips.
| 1880 Webster Suppl. s.v., To cradle a picture. 1891 Pall Mall G. 24 Aug. 2/1 The panel was cradled—that is, narrow pieces of mahogany were fixed..down the back of the panel, and these were cross-hatched with other slips..The cradling makes it difficult for the panel to warp. |
7. To wash (auriferous gravel) in a miner's cradle. Also
absol. and
fig.| 1852 Earp Gold Col. Australia 144 All occupations, other than digging and cradling, are..reserved for Sunday. 1860 O. W. Holmes Elsie V. 188 (Hoppe), I don't doubt there is some truth in the phenomena of animal magnetism; but when you ask me to cradle for it, I tell you that the hysteric girls cheat so, etc. |
8. Coopering. To cut a cask in two lengthwise.
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Cradling, cutting a cask in two lengthwise, in order to allow it to pass through a doorway or hatchway, the parts being afterwards united and rehooped. |