Cradle

English Meaning

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; as, a cradle of crime; the cradle of liberty.

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