cradle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A small low bed for an infant, often furnished with rockers.
2. n. The earliest period of life: had an interest in music almost from the cradle.
3. n. A place of origin; a birthplace: the cradle of civilization.
4. n. A framework of wood or metal used to support something, such as a ship undergoing construction or repair.
5. n. A framework used to protect an injured limb.
6. n. A low flat framework that rolls on casters, used by a mechanic working beneath an automobile. Also called creeper.
7. n. The part of a telephone that contains the connecting switch upon which the receiver and mouthpiece unit is supported.
8. n. A frame projecting above a scythe, used to catch grain as it is cut so that it can be laid flat.
9. n. A scythe equipped with such a frame.
10. n. A boxlike device furnished with rockers, used for washing gold-bearing dirt.
11. v. To place or retain in or as if in a cradle.
12. v. To care for or nurture in infancy.
13. v. To hold or support protectively: cradled the cat in his arms.
14. v. To reap (grain) with a cradle.
15. v. To place or support (a ship, for example) in a cradle.
16. v. To wash (gold-bearing dirt) in a cradle.
17. v. Obsolete To lie in or as if in a cradle.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A little bed or cot for an infant, usually mounted on rockers, or balanced or suspended in such a manner as to admit of a rocking or swinging motion.
2. n. Hence The place where any person or thing is nurtured in the earlier stage of existence: as, Asia, the cradle of the human race; the cradle of liberty, etc.
3. n. A standing bedstead for wounded seamen.
4. n. A name of various mechanical contrivances. That part of the stock of a crossbow where the missile is put.
5. n. An old game played by children: same as cat's-cradle.
6. To place or rock in a cradle; quiet by or as if by rocking.
7. To nurse in infancy.
8. To cut with a cradle, as grain.
9. To wash in a miners' cradle, as auriferous gravel.
10. To lie in or as if in a cradle.
11. To reinforce on the back with crossed strips in order to prevent warping: as, to cradle a picture.
12. To support on or in a cradle: as, to cradle a ship while it is being raised to a higher level.
13. To cut (a cask) in two longitudinally.

Wiktionary

1. n. A bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinging on pivots.
2. n. figuratively The place of origin, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence.
3. n. figuratively Infancy, or very early life.
4. n. An implement consisting of a broad scythe for cutting grain, with a set of long fingers parallel to the scythe, designed to receive the grain, and to lay it evenly in a swath.
5. n. A tool used in mezzotint engraving, which, by a rocking motion, raises burrs on the surface of the plate, so preparing the ground.
6. n. A framework of timbers, or iron bars, moving upon ways or rollers, used to support, lift, or carry ships or other vessels, heavy guns, etc., as up an inclined plane, or across a strip of land, or in launching a ship.
7. n. A case for a broken or dislocated limb.
8. n. A frame to keep the bedclothes from contact with the sensitive parts of an injured person.
9. n. A machine on rockers, used in washing out auriferous earth.
10. n. A suspended scaffold used in shafts.
11. n. A ribbing for vaulted ceilings and arches intended to be covered with plaster.
12. n. nautical A basket or apparatus in which, when a line has been made fast to a wrecked ship from the shore, the people are brought off from the wreck.
13. n. A rest for the receiver of a telephone.
14. n. A hand position allowing a contact ball to be held steadily on the back of the hand.
15. v. transitive To contain in or as if in a cradle.
16. v. transitive To rock (a baby to sleep).
17. v. transitive To wrap protectively.
18. v. lacrosse To rock the lacrosse stick back and forth in order to keep the ball in the head by means of centrifugal force.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinging on pivots; hence, the place of origin, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence.
2. n. Infancy, or very early life.
3. n. (Agric.) An implement consisting of a broad scythe for cutting grain, with a set of long fingers parallel to the scythe, designed to receive the grain, and to lay it evenly in a swath.
4. n. (Engraving) A tool used in mezzotint engraving, which, by a rocking motion, raises burrs on the surface of the plate, so preparing the ground.
5. n. A framework of timbers, or iron bars, moving upon ways or rollers, used to support, lift, or carry ships or other vessels, heavy guns, etc., as up an inclined plane, or across a strip of land, or in launching a ship.
6. n. A case for a broken or dislocated limb.
7. n. A frame to keep the bedclothes from contact with the person.
8. n. U.S. A machine on rockers, used in washing out auriferous earth; -- also called a rocker.
9. n. A suspended scaffold used in shafts.
10. n. (Carp.) The ribbing for vaulted ceilings and arches intended to be covered with plaster.
11. n. (Naut.) The basket or apparatus in which, when a line has been made fast to a wrecked ship from the shore, the people are brought off from the wreck.
12. v. To lay to rest, or rock, as in a cradle; to lull or quiet, as by rocking.
13. v. To nurse or train in infancy.
14. v. To cut and lay with a cradle, as grain.
15. v. To transport a vessel by means of a cradle.
16. v. To lie or lodge, as in a cradle.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a baby bed with sides and rockers
2. n. a trough that can be rocked back and forth; used by gold miners to shake auriferous earth in water in order to separate the gold
3. v. cut grain with a cradle scythe
4. n. where something originated or was nurtured in its early existence
5. n. birth of a person
6. v. wash in a cradle
7. v. hold or place in or as if in a cradle
8. v. run with the stick
9. v. hold gently and carefully
10. v. bring up from infancy