Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency. See Synonyms at art1.
Skill in evasion or deception; guile.
An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or skilled artistry.
The membership of such an occupation or trade; guild.
pl.craft A boat, ship, or aircraft.
tr.v.
craft·ed, craft·ing, crafts
To make by hand.
Usage Problem To make or construct (something) in a manner suggesting great care or ingenuity: "It was not the Chamber of Commerce that crafted the public policies that have resulted in a $26 billion annual subvention to the farmers"(William F. Buckley, Jr.)
[Middle English, from Old English cræft.]
craft'er n.
Usage Note: Craft has been used as a verb since the Old English period and was used in Middle English to refer specifically to the artful construction of a text or discourse. In recent years, crafted, the past participle of craft, has enjoyed a vogue as a participle referring to well-wrought writing. Craft is more acceptable when applied to literary works than to other sorts of writing, and more acceptable as a participle than as a verb. Seventy-three percent of the Usage Panel accepts the phrase beautifully crafted prose. By contrast, only 35 percent accept the sentence The planners crafted their proposal so as to anticipate the objections of local businesses.
O.E. cræft "power, strength, might," from P.Gmc. *krab-/*kraf-. Sense shifted to "skill, art" (via a notion of "mental power"), which led to the n. meaning of "trade." Use for "small boat" is first recorded 1671, probably from some nautical sense of "vessels of small craft," referring either to the trade they did or the seamanship they required.
Craft\ (kr[.a]ft), n. [AS. cr[ae]ft strength, skill, art, cunning; akin to OS., G., Sw., & Dan. kraft strength, D. kracht, Icel. kraptr; perh. originally, a drawing together, stretching, from the root of E. cramp.]1. Strength; might; secret power. [Obs.] --Chaucer. 2. Art or skill; dexterity in particular manual employment; hence, the occupation or employment itself; manual art; a trade. Ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. --Acts xix. 25. A poem is the work of the poet; poesy is his skill or craft of making. --B. Jonson. Since the birth of time, throughout all ages and nations, Has the craft of the smith been held in repute. --Longfellow. 3. Those engaged in any trade, taken collectively; a guild; as, the craft of ironmongers. The control of trade passed from the merchant guilds to the new craft guilds. --J. R. Green. 4. Cunning, art, or skill, in a bad sense, or applied to bad purposes; artifice; guile; skill or dexterity employed to effect purposes by deceit or shrewd devices. You have that crooked wisdom which is called craft. --Hobbes. The chief priets and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. --Mark xiv. 1. 5. (Naut.) A vessel; vessels of any kind; -- generally used in a collective sense. The evolutions of the numerous tiny craft moving over the lake. --Prof. Wilson. Small crafts, small vessels, as sloops, schooners, ets.
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Audio Help [kraft, krahft] Pronunciation Key noun, plural crafts or, for 5, 8, craft, verb 
