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, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence; as, a cradle of crime; the cradle of liberty. The cradle that received thee at thy birth. Cowper. No sooner was I crept out of my cradle But I was made a king, at nine months old. Shak.

Land or region where one was cradled; hence, land of origin.

To take from a cradle. [R.] This airy apparition first discradled From Tournay into Portugal. Ford.

To lay in a cradle.

basket, with a covering or hood over one end, in which young children are placed as in a cradle.

ocal or instrumental composition of a soft tranquil character, having a lulling effect; a cradle song.

d to remain till it becomes very offensive. -- Bilge ways, the timbers which support the cradle of a ship upon the ways, and which slide upon the launching ways in launching the vessel.

cord fastened to a handle; -- formerly used to flog offenders on the bare back. -- Cat's cradle, game played, esp. by children, with a string looped on the fingers so, as to resemble small cradle. The string is transferred from the fingers of one to those of another, at each transfer with a change of form. See Cratch,…

gin, in my grand climacteric, to squall in their new accents, or to stammer, in my second cradle, the elemental sounds of their barbarous metaphysics. Burke.

A sleeping place of limited size; a little bed; a cradle; a piece of canvas extended by a frame, used as a bed. [Written also cott.]

The act of using a cradle.

A manger or open frame for hay; a crib; a rack. [Obs.] Begin from first where He encradled was, In simple cratch, wrapt in a wad of hay. Spenser. Cratch cradle, a representation of the figure of the cratch, made upon the fingers with a string; cat's cradle; -- called also scratch cradle.

nds from deep water to above high-water mark, and upon which is a railway on which runs a cradle carrying the ship. -- Wet dock, a dock where the water is shut in, and kept at a given level, to facilitate the loading and unloading of ships; -- also sometimes used as a place of safety; a basin.

action of thirst. "Song was the form of literature which he [Burns] had drunk in from his cradle." J. C. Shairp. -- To drink off or up, to drink the whole at a draught; as, to drink off a cup of cordial. -- To drink the health of, or To drink to the health of, to drink while expressing good wishes for the health or w…

To devour. [Obs.] The sow frete the child right in the cradle. Chaucer.

old, under Cloth. -- Gold Coast, a part of the coast of Guinea, in West Africa. -- Gold cradle. (Mining) See Cradle, n., 7. -- Gold diggings, the places, or region, where gold is found by digging in sand and gravel from which it is separated by washing. -- Gold end, a fragment of broken gold or jewelry. -- Gold-en…

Gravel retaining in the hopper of a cradle.

y manners. Your wives, your daughters, Your matrons, and your maids. Shak. Grave from her cradle, insomuch that she was a matron before she was a mother. Fuller.

nting or symbolizing the early infancy of Christ. The simplest form is the babe in a rude cradle, and the heads of an ox and an ass to express the stable in which he was born.

I must have patience to endure the load. Shak. Who hath learned lowliness From his Lord's cradle, patience from his cross. Keble.