Chapter Cracknel to Cramp of C by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

1. To lay to rest, or rock, as in a cradle; to lull or quiet, as by rocking.

It cradles their fears to sleep.
D. A. Clark.

2. To nurse or train in infancy.

He that hath been cradled in majesty will not leave the throne to play with beggars.
Glanvill.

3. To cut and lay with a cradle, as grain.

4. To transport a vessel by means of a cradle.

In Lombardy . . . boats are cradled and transported over the grade.
Knight.

To cradle a picture, to put ribs across the back of a picture, to prevent the panels from warping.

Cradle
(Cra"dle), v. i. To lie or lodge, as in a cradle.

Withered roots and husks wherein the acorn cradled.
Shak.

Cradling
(Cra"dling) n.

1. The act of using a cradle.

2. (Coopering) Cutting a cask into two pieces lengthwise, to enable it to pass a narrow place, the two parts being afterward united and rehooped.

3. (Carp.) The framework in arched or coved ceilings to which the laths are nailed. Knight.

Craft
(Craft) n. [AS. cræft 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 priests 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.