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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 frame 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 framework 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 frame 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 originates or is nurtured during its early life
the cradle of civilization
- the earliest period of life
they knew each other from the cradle
- a frame, 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
- See creeperanother name for creeper
- agriculture
- a framework 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 framework used to prevent the bedclothes from touching a sensitive part of an injured person
- from the cradle to the gravefrom the cradle to the grave throughout 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
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Derived Forms
- ˈcradler, noun
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Other Words From
- cradler noun
- un·cradled adjective
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Word History and Origins
Origin of cradle1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of cradle1
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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 .Discover More
Example Sentences
You have focused on individual events and ideas in your books about Lincoln rather than the cradle-to-grave biographical approach.
His books include Up From the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II and a novel, Last of the Red Hot Poppas.
Both Linda Perilstein, executive director of Cradle of Hope, and Leslie Case of Spence-Chapin, both declined to comment.
Doctors would not let the Cradle of Civilization come to this.
When it comes to art, we are taught from the cradle that copying is wrong.
She rose comforted, and drawing the baby's cradle out into the veranda, seated herself at her embroidery.
The scarlet calico canopy was again set up over the bed, and the woven cradle, on its red manzanita frame, stood near.
When the funeral was over, and they returned to their desolate home, at the sight of the empty cradle Ramona broke down.
From its very cradle socialism showed the double aspect which has distinguished it ever since.
Oh, yes,—he has served me from my cradle; and his plain honest heart feels for his mistress's fallen fortunes, and is heavy.
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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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