[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To lay or place in, or as in, a cradle; to rock to sleep.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1707. The catyfest creatur þat credylytt was euer.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, Sat. XV. 184 (J.).
| Or Infant’s Fun’ral, from the cheated Womb | |
| Convey’d to Earth, and cradled in a Tomb. |
c. 1714. Arbuthnot, etc. Mart. Scrib., I. iii. He shall be cradled in my ancient shield.
1856. Capern, Poems (ed. 2), 10.
| We ’ll cradle up our infant child, | |
| And take our evening’s ramble, | |
| Adown the paths of woodland wild, | |
| Through briar, thorn, and bramble. |
1864. Tennyson, Sea Dreams, 57. The babe … cradled near them, wail’d and woke The mother.
fig. 1659. Lovelace, Poems (1864), 207.
| And ere the morn cradles the moon, | |
| Th’ art broke into a beauteous noon. |
1800. Moore, Anacreon, iv. 6. Let me have a silver bowl, Where I may cradle all my soul.
b. To receive or hold as a cradle.
1872. J. G. Holland, Marb. Proph., 82. For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a king.
† 2. intr. (for refl.) To lie as in a cradle. Obs.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 464. Wither’d roots, and huskes Wherein the Acorne cradled.
3. trans. To nurture, shelter, or rear in infancy, or in the earliest stage.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, 34. Cain … cradled yet in his fathers houshold.
1793. Burke, Rem. Policy of Allies, Wks. 1842, I. 606. A commonwealth in a manner cradled in war.
1840. Hood, Up the Rhine, 192. The house that cradled Prince Metternich.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 165. A fear in which they have been cradled.
1865. Union Rev., III. 263. Wesleyan Methodism, if not born, was cradled in Lincolnshire.
b. To cradle into: to rock or lull into; to nurture into from the cradle.
1819. Shelley, Julian & M., 545. Most wretched men Are cradled into poetry by wrong.
1833. Chalmers, Const. Man (1835), I. iv. 177. The conscience is cradled into a state of stupefaction.
4. Husb. To mow (corn, etc.) with a cradle-scythe. Also absol. (dial. craddle.)
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husbandm., V. ii. 61. The art of cradling corn.
1835. Tait’s Mag., II. 149. A rye field … which he had … let to be craddled.
1838. Hawthorne, Amer. Note-bks. (1883), 153. A man with a cradle over his shoulder, having been cradling oats.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 203. One quarter of an acre a day was secured for each able hand engaged in cradling, raking, and binding.
5. To set or support, in or on a cradle; to raise a boat or ship to a higher level by a cradle.
1775. Falck, Day’s Diving Vess., 50. A method that promises better success … namely, cradling the object.
1823. W. Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale-Fishery, 305. The ship being firmly cradled upon the tongues of ice.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v. Cradle, The locks are insufficient or absent, and boats are cradled and transported over the grade.
6. To support the back of (a picture, panel, etc.) by longitudinal ribs and transverse slips.
1880. Webster, Suppl. s.v., To cradle a picture.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Aug., 2/1. The panel was cradled—that is, narrow pieces of mahogany were fixed with the grain with our composition down the back of the panel, and these were cross-hatched with other slips…. The cradling makes it difficult for the panel to warp.
7. To wash (auriferous gravel) in a miner’s cradle. Also absol. and fig.
1852. Earp, Gold Col. Australia, 144. All occupations, other than digging and cradling, are … reserved for Sunday.
1860. O. W. Holmes, Elsie V., I. 274–5 (Hoppe). I don’t doubt there is some truth in the phenomena of animal magnetism, for instance; but when you ask me to cradle for it, I tell you that the hysteric girls cheat so, [etc.].
8. Coopering. To cut a cask in two lengthwise.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Cradling, cutting a cask in two lengthwise, in order to allow it to pass through a door way or hatchway, the parts being afterwards united and rehooped.
