Cradle

Forms: 1 cradel, -ol, 3–7 cradel(e, 4 (cradyl, Sc. kardil), 4–6 cradil(le, 4–5 kradel(l, 5–7 cradell(e, 5– cradle; 4–6 credil(le, -dyl(l(e, -del, 5 Sc. creddil(l, 7 credle, 7 (9 dial.) craddle, 9 dial. creddle. [OE. cradol, beside which there was perh. a parallel form *crædel whence northern ME. credil, credel, mod. Sc. and north. Eng. creddle. Derivation uncertain.

  Usually compared with OHG. chratto, cratto, MHG. kratte ‘basket, panier, creel’ which, with the synonymous OHG. c(h)rezzo, MHG. chrezze, kretze, Ger. krätze, kretze (having also, Grimm, Krätze I. 3, the sense ‘cradle’), appears to go back to an ablaut-stem *krat-, krad. From this, OE. cradol, cradel might be a diminutive formation, lit. ‘little basket’: cf. mod. bassinet.

  The various Celtic derivations conjectured, e.g., from Welsh crȳd, ‘shake, shakes, ague,’ now also in N. Wales ‘cradle,’ from Gael. creathall (kre·al), cradle, etc., have no etymological value. Craidhal sometimes erroneously cited as Irish, is a bad spelling of Gael. creathall, given by O’Reilly from Shaw.]

  I.  1. A little bed or cot for an infant: properly, one mounted on rockers, but often extended to a swing-cot, or a simple cot basket-bed that is neither rocked nor swung.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, I. 124. Cunabulum, cradel.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 82. Heo makeð of hire tunge cradel to þes deofles bearn, & rockeð hit ʓeorneliche ase nurice.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 243. In hir credille ȝing tille Inglond scho cam.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. X. 79. Wakynge a nyghtes … to rocke þe cradel.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 101. Credel, or cradel, crepundium.

1576.  Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 358. The … valliaunt warriour … once … lay crying in a wicker cradle.

1674.  trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, xxvi. 123. The rocking the infant in his cradle follows next.

1748.  F. Smith, Voy. Disc. N.-W. Pass., 211. The Women carry these Cradles at their Backs, with the Child’s Back to theirs.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, x. He rocked the cradle with his foot.

Mod. Proverb, She who rocks the cradle rules the world.

  fig.  1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. i. 20. Wilt thou … rock his Braines, In Cradle of the rude imperious Surge.

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. iv. F 3 b. To rock your baby thoughts in the Cradle of sleepe.

1835.  Lytton, Rienzi, II. iv. To rock them … in the cradle of their false security.

  b.  Applied to a piece of silver plate, or the like, presented to the wife of a mayor to whom a child is born during his period of office.

  Originally a cradle, or the model of one, for which something else is now often substituted.

1863.  Illustr. Lond. News, 16 Jan. (Hoppe). The Lady Mayoress of Dublin, having given birth to a child during her husband’s year of office as Mayor, has been presented with a silver cradle. The gift is really a case, but on such occasions it is always termed a ‘Cradle.’

1880.  M’chester City News, 4 Dec. At the Annual dinner of the City Council … Alderman Pattison the ex-Mayor, was presented with a silver cradle…. It is a pretty conceit, this custom of presenting a silver cradle to a chief Magistrate on the occasion of a birth in his family during his year of office.

  2.  In various phrases, taken as the symbol of infancy or of the first period or stage of existence; e.g., from the (first, or very) cradle, to stifle in the cradle, watch over the cradle, etc.

1555.  Eden, Decades, 110. Wherwith the stomakes of owr people … haue euer byn noorisshed euen from their cradelles.

1581.  Mulcaster, Positions, xxxix. (1887), 186. To keepe a countenaunce farre aboue the common, euen from the first cradle.

1611.  Bible, Transl. Pref., 10. In the Latine wee haue been exercised almost from our verie cradle.

1659.  B. Harris, Parival’s Iron Age, 153. Now this infamous treason was known … but all the difficulty was how to stifle it in the Cradle.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 52, ¶ 4. A modest Fellow never has a Doubt from his Cradle to his Grave.

1795.  Burke, Corr., IV. 309. To watch over the cradle of those seminaries.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 12. That the Norman gentlemen were orators from the cradle.

1884.  D. Hunter, trans. Reuss’s Hist. Canon, iv. 61. Churches whose origin goes back to the cradle of Christianity.

  3.  fig. The place or region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. x. 64. Sith to thee is unknowne the cradle of thy brood.

1628.  Coke, On Litt., Pref. Our labors are but the cradles of the law.

1734.  trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. Pref. 5. Egypt that served at first as the cradle of the holy nation.

1841.  W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 20. The cradle of literature and art.

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. vi. 407. Wessex, the cradle of the royal house.

  4.  Applied poetically to that which serves as a couch or place of repose.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., III. i. 80. Swaggering … So neere the Cradle of the Faierie Queene? Ibid. (1592), Ven. & Ad., 1185. In this hollow cradle [the bosom] take thy rest My throbbing heart shall rock thee day and night.

1790.  Cowper, Odyss., IV. 506. Four cradles in the sand she scoop’d.

  5.  Naut. ‘A standing bedstead for a wounded seaman, instead of a hammock’ (Crabb).

1803.  Naval Chron., IX. 259. Captain Merville … gave him that night one of the ship’s company’s cradles.

1867.  in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.

  II.  Technical applications to things having the structure, appearance, use, or rocking motion of the child’s cradle.

  6.  Any framework of bars, cords, rods, etc., united by lateral ties; a grating, or hurdle-like structure:

  spec. a. A framework or grating placed round anything to protect it; b. a supporting framework; c. a frame in which glaziers carry glass; a crate of glass; d. a basket-like grating or framework; a cresset; e. a suspended scaffolding or stage used by workmen on buildings, in mines, etc.; f. in Coach-building (see quot. 1794); † g. The bed or carriage of a cannon (quot. 1497).

1379.  Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 103. Et de j Credel.

1497.  in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scot., I. 348. Giffin to pynouris to bere the treis to be Mons new cradil to hir. Ibid., 349. xiij stane of irne, to mak grath to Mons new cradill.

1538.  Aberdeen Reg., V. 16 (Jam.). Ane cradill of glass.

1561.  Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden), 102. For makinge a new cradle for the bere. Ibid., 130. For makinge of a cradelle to goe about the steple.

1611.  Markham, Country Content., I. xvi. (1668), 78. Set a little cradle of limed straws about his seat.

1664.  Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 201. Carefully protect … your Ranunculus’s … covering them with Mattresses supported on Cradles of Hoops.

1665.  Phil. Trans., I. 81. The Iron-grate or Cradle, that holds the burning Coals.

1679.  Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 280. An old Man … that carryed a cradle of glasses at his back.

a. 1682.  Sir T. Browne, Tracts, 49. Men place cradles upon high trees in marish regions, that storks may breed upon them.

1694.  Acct. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 171. From the Water to the Cradle, (that is the round Circle that goeth round about the Middle of the Mast, and is made in the shape of a Basket).

1695.  Kennett, Par. Antiq., Gloss. s.v. Carecta, A cradle … applied to some other utensils that carry or bear any thing, As in the North, a dish-cradle, for the setting up wooden dishes or trenchers.

1742.  Bp. Wilson, in Keble, Life, xxiii. (1863), 800. My proposal to dry corn-mows (by a sort of cradle perforating them to ensure ventilation).

1771.  Batchelor (1773), I. 256. Mr. F. mounted on the box, driving a stage coach, with Mr. P-ns-by in the cradle.

1794.  W. Felton, Carriages (1801), I. 130. A cradle is a leather platform, made to receive the seat. Coachboxes are not complete without cradles and seats.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 20. These pieces of wood being placed upon moveable cradles made of hammered iron.

1870.  E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 65. You must see to the creddles … I can’t have my young oaks barked. Ibid., III. 195. The iron cradle in which the warning-light had often burned.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Cradle … 8 A suspended scaffold used by miners.

1879.  Thomson & Tait, Nat. Phil., I. I. 486. Each of the counterpoises is equal to twice the weight of one of the pulleys P with its sliding cradle.

1884.  J. Mackintosh, Hist. Civiliz. Scot., III. xxix. 329. The Wemyss glass-work…. The cradles contained fifteen wisp.

  7.  Husb. A light frame of wood attached to a scythe, having a row of long curved teeth parallel to the blade, to lay the corn more evenly in the swathe; ‘a three forked instrument of wood on which the corn is caught as it falls from the sithe’ (Tusser Redivivus, 1710).

1573.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 37. A cradle for barlie, with rubstone and sand.

1641.  Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 49. Corne sythes have allwayes cradles, for carryinge of the corne handsomely to the sweath-balke.

1677.  Plot, Oxfordsh., 255. Which [barley] they mow with a sithe without a cradle.

1750.  W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., IV. ii. 44. Barley … is mown by the scythe and cradle.

c. 1818.  Mrs. Carey, Tour in France, i. (1823), 15. The scythes … are very light, with a little cradle attached.

1866.  Thoreau, Yankee in Canada, iii. 56. Wishing to learn if they used the cradle … I set up the knives and forks on the blade of the sickle to represent one.

  8.  Surg. A protecting framework of different kinds for an injured limb, etc.

  (a)  A series of arches of wire or wood, connected by longitudinal strips, to sustain the pressure of the bedclothes. (b) A framework in which an injured limb may be slung.

1704.  F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1711), 44. The sick Person may at once enjoy the Convenience of a Cradle.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v., A Surgeon’s Cradle … to lay a broken Leg in.

1847.  J. F. South, trans. Chelius’ Surg., I. 511. For the more effectual cooling of the limb, a cradle should be put over it.

1870.  T. Holmes, Syst. Surg. (ed. 2), V. 886. The limb is then slung in a simple cradle.

1883.  Braithwaite, Retrospect Med., LXXXVI. 167. The cradles for the knee and ankle are made of wood.

  9.  Naut. The framework on which a ship rests during construction or repairs, and on which she slides at launching. Also, that in which a vessel lies in a way or slip, or in a canal-lift (cf. COFFER 9); and other analogous applications.

1627.  Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., i. 1. A cradel is a frame of timber, made along a ship … for the more ease and safty in lanching.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Coites, the ways, or cradles, upon which a ship … descends, when she is … launched.

1775.  Falck, Day’s Diving Vess., 50. There are different kinds of cradles … made use of for weighing of vessels; one sort is made of four cables of equal length.

1817.  Blackw. Mag., I. 547/1. The Kent, of 80 guns, was … securely placed in a cradle for repair.

1852.  S. C. Brees, Gloss. Pract. Archit., 126. Cradle, or Coffer, the framework employed in perpendicular lifts, for holding the boats, and conveying them from one pond to the other.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 223/2. The ‘cradles’ must be fitted … between the bottom of the ship and the sliding-way.

  10.  An appliance in which a person or thing is swung or carried.

  a.  The apparatus in which a person is drawn from a wreck to a place of safety. b. ‘A machine made of stout sail-cloth, for the purpose of shipping and unshipping horses’ (Crabb, Techn. Dict., 1823).

1839.  36 Years of Seafaring life, 268. They hauled the lines in, the jackstay was set up, the cradle sent along, and by this means thirteen persons were saved.

  † 11.  The part of a cross-bow on which the missile rested. Obs.

1721–.  in Bailey.

  12.  Arch. and Building. (See quots.; also COFFER 5 a.)

1823.  Crabb, Technol. Dict., Cradle (Archit.) vide Coffer.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Cradle (Carpentry), the rough framework or bracketing forming ribbing for vaulting ceilings and arches intended to be covered with plaster.

1875.  Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Cradle, a name sometimes given to a centering of ribs and lattice for turning culverts.

  13.  Engraving. A chisel-like tool with a serrated edge, which is ‘rocked’ to and fro over the surface of the metal plate, to produce a mezzotint ground.

1788–9.  Howard, Encycl., I. 619. Cradle, among engravers, is the name of an instrument used in scraping mezzotintos and preparing the plate.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, s.v. Engraving, II. 288. This operation is called laying the ground; it is performed by rocking the cradle to and fro.

1883.  J. C. Smith, Brit. Mezzotinto Portr., IV. ii. p. xxiii. The instruments used in mezzotinto engraving consist of the cradle or rocking-tool, the scraper, [etc.].

  14.  Gold Mining. A trough on rockers in which auriferous earth or sand is shaken in water, in order to separate and collect the gold.

1849.  Illustr. Lond. News, 17 Nov., 325/1. (Let. fr. Gold Diggings) Two men can keep each other steadily at work, the one digging and carrying the earth in a bucket, and the other washing and rocking the cradle.

1852.  Motley, Lett. (1889), I. 146. Whether I shall at last find a few grains of pure gold in my cradle.

1883.  T. Evans, in Century Mag., Jan., 323/1. The cradle or rocker. The rocker is the rudest and simplest of all machines employed for the separation of gold.

  15.  See CAT’S CRADLE.

  III.  attrib. and Comb.

  16.  General: a. attributive, as (sense 1) cradle-babe, -bed, -cap, -child, -clothes, † -clout, -dream, -fellow, -head, -life, -melody, -necessaries, -practise, -side, -throne, -time, -tune; (sense 7) cradle-bar; b. objective, as cradle-dealer, -keeper, -plunderer, -rocker; c. locative, as cradle-sworn, -tombed.

1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 392. As milde and gentle as the *Cradle-babe.

a. 1847.  Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, II. xvii. 451. She took her little infant … and laid her asleep upon the *cradle-bed.

1868.  Ld. Houghton, Select., 210. Beside the downy cradle-bed.

1014.  Wulfstan, Hom., xxxiii. (1883), 158. *Cradolcild geþeowode þurh wælhreowe unlaȝa.

1832.  J. Bree, St. Herbert’s Isle, 55. Though a cradle-child Misfortune threw me on the shoals of life.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. i. 88. That some Night-tripping-Faiery, had exchang’d In *Cradle-clothes, our Children where they lay.

1838.  Jas. Grant, Sk. Lond., 333. Commissioner—And to which of the professions may your belong?
  Mr. Crofts—To the profession of a *cradle dealer. (Roars of laughter.)

1845.  G. Murray, Islaford, 55. The Bethlehem-song that hushed our *cradle-dreams.

1847.  Mrs. Sherwood, in Life, xxxi. 538. Then and there all personal intercourse closed with him who had been my *cradle-fellow.

1864.  Tennyson, Sea Dreams, 277. The woman … half embraced the basket *cradle-head.

1610.  Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 164. Cunina, the *cradle-keeper and wich-chaser.

1882–3.  Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2138/1. Christian art in Rome, where it had its *cradle-life.

1851.  D. Jerrold, St. Giles, x. 100. It had been a *cradle melody to him.

1552.  Huloet, *Cradle necessaries, or all thinges pertaynyng to the swathlynge of Infantes.

1548.  Udall, Erasm. Par., Luke, 190 b. An infaunte in the *cradle place.

1864.  W. W. Whitby, American Slavery, 187. In the eloquent language of Douglas, ‘We have men-stealers for ministers, woman-whippers for missionaries, and *cradle-plunderers for church members.’

1631.  Massinger, Emp. East, IV. iv. The cure of the gout … without boast be it said, my *cradlepractice.

1888.  H. M. Storrs, in Ohio Archæol. & Hist. Quarterly, June, 105. Nations now gather to the *cradleside of any new-born thought.

1891.  Will Foster, in Blackw. Mag., Oct., 547.

1846.  Keble, Lyra Innoc., II. x. 10.

1586.  Warner, Alb. Eng., I. iii. (R.). Hercules [of] whose famous acts … the first but not the least In *cradle-time befell.

1868.  Whittier, Among the Hills, xli. As free as if from cradle-time We two had played together.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. Babylon, 511. One in the feeble birth becomming old, Is *cradle-toomb’d.

1880.  Emily Pfeiffer, in Contemp. Rev., March, 417. Ears whose *cradle-tune had been the beat Of ocean waves.

  17.  Special Comb.: † cradle-band, -bands, swaddling cloth, or bands; † cradle-barn, cradle-child; † cradle-chimney (see quot.); cradle-drill, a rock-drill supported on a cradle-like trough; cradle-heap, -hill (U.S.) a hillock formed by the fallen trunk of a tree; cradle-holding, a name for land held in BOROUGH-ENGLISH; cradle-hole (U.S.), a depression in a road; also a spot from which the frost is melting; cradle-joint, a joint allowing something to swing or oscillate; cradle-land, the land in which a people dwell in their earliest times; cradle-man, one who uses a cradle-scythe, a cradler; † cradle-piece, a piece cut out of a quill in making a pen; cradle-printing-machine, ‘a printing machine in which the cylinder has only a half revolution, which gives it a rocking or cradle-like motion’ (Ogilvie); cradle-roof, a roof, in shape like a half cylinder, divided into panels by wooden ribs; cradle-scale, ‘a pair of scales for weighing sacks of corn in a mill’ (Evans, Leicestersh. Gloss.); cradle-scythe, a scythe fitted with a cradle (in sense 7); cradle-song, a song sung to a child in the cradle, a lullaby; † cradle-tooth, a rib of the cradle of a scythe; cradle-vault (see quot. and cf. cradle-roof); † cradle-walk, a garden walk over-arched with clipped yew or the like; † cradle-witted a., having the wits of an infant.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. ix. (1495), 195. The nouryce bindeth the chylde togyders wyth *cradylbondes.

c. 1475.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 794/1. Hec fassia, credylbond.

1552.  Huloet, Cradle bande, instita.

c. 1300.  Havelok, 1912. He … made hem rowte Als he weren *kradelbarnes.

1825–79.  Jamieson, *Cradle-Chimlay, the large oblong cottage grate, open at all sides, used in what is called a round-about fireside.

1884.  R. Hunt, British Mining, 526. A single-acting *cradle-drill mounted on a stretcher-bar for sinking shafts.

1830.  Galt, Lawrie T., I. ii. (1849), 86. Stumps and *cradle heaps … succeeded one another.

1882.  F. Pollock, in Macm. Mag., XLVI. 360, note. The land is known … as *cradle-holding in some parts of the south.

1867.  J. Hogg, Microsc., I. iii. 190. A small tube, connected to a stout pin by means of a *cradle-joint.

1872.  Yeats, Growth Comm., 37. The position of Egypt, between the *cradle lands of the human race and the African continent.

1889.  P. A. Bruce, Plantation Negro, 197. *Cradlemen, ditchers, assorters of tobacco are paid higher for the same length of time.

1727.  W. Mather, Yng. Man’s Comp., 76. Enter your Knife sloping … about twice the breadth of the Quill, and cut away the *Cradle-piece.

1845.  Ecclesiologist, IV. 282. The *cradle roof of the chancel still remains; some of the bosses are very good.

1875.  Gwilt, Archit., § 2052h. The framing of cradle roofs, with king-posts carried upon … the tie-beams.

1669–81.  Worlidge, Dict. Rust., A cradle is a frame of wood fixed to a sythe for the mowing of corn … it is then called a *Cradle-sythe.

1822.  J. Flint, Lett. fr. Amer., 99. The axe, the pick-axe, and the cradle-scythe.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. iv. (1495), 19. Nouryces vse lullynges and other *cradyl songes to pleyse the wyttes of the chylde.

1889.  Spectator, 9 Nov., 636/1. It is remarkable … that Watts, who was a bachelor, has written the loveliest cradle-song in the language.

1641.  Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 120. The smallest sort of them for harrowe-spindles; some for *cradle-teeth; and some shorte ones for plough-staffes.

1875.  Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., *Cradle Vault, a term used, but improperly, to denote a cylindric vault.

1662.  Evelyn, Diary, 9 June (D.). The *cradle-walk of hornebeame in the garden is … very observable.

1751.  Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), III. lxxxi. 124. The garden laid out in a cradle-walk, and intervening parterres.

1580.  Sidney, Arcadia, II. 222. Who … Though *cradle-witted, must not honor lose.