Cradle
CRADLE, noun [Gr., to swing.]
1. A movable machine of various constructions, placed on circular pieces of board, for rocking children or inform persons to sleep, for alleviating pain, or giving moderate exercise.
Me let the tender office long engage, to rock the cradle of reposing age.
2. Infancy. From the cradle is from the state of infancy; in the cradle in a state of infancy.
3. That part of the stock of a cross-bow, where the bullet is put.
4. In surgery, a case in which a broken leg is laid after being set.
5. In ship-building, a frame placed under the bottom of a ship for launching. It supports the ship and slides down the timbers or passage called the ways.
6. A standing bedstead for wounded seamen.
7. In engraving, an instrument, formed of steel, and resembling a chisel, with one sloping side, used in scraping mezzotintos, and preparing the plate.
8. In husbandry, a frame of wood, with long bending teeth, to which is fastened a sythe, for cutting and laying oats and other grain in a swath.
CRADLE, verb transitive
1. To lay in a cradle; to rock in a cradle; to compose, or quiet.
It cradles their fears to sleep.
2. To nurse in infancy.
3. To cut and lay with a cradle as grain.
CRADLE, verb intransitive To lie or lodge in a cradle