Crā'dle1, n.
(krā'dl), n. [A-S. cradel, cradol. Cf. W. cryd, a shaking or rocking, a cradle, crydu, crydian, crydiaw, Ir. creathaim, Gael. crith, to shake.]
Sense 1. A movable bed, so constructed as to rock, for the use of infants; hence, the place in which any thing is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of its existence.
No sooner was I crept out of my cradle, Than I was made a king, at nine months old. Shak.
Sense 2. The condition of infancy, or very early life.
They should scarcely depart from a form of worship in which they had been educated from their cradles. Clarendon.
Sense 3. (Agric.) An instrument added to a scythe, for cutting grain. It consists of a light framework of long, flexible teeth parallel to the scythe, designed to receive the grain as cut, and to lay it evenly in swaths.
Sense 4. (Engraving.) An instrument used especially in preparing plates for mezzotints. It consists of a flat piece of tempered steel properly prepared with teeth and fitted to a handle, which, by a rocking motion, raises burrs on the surface of the plate, so laying the ground.
Sense 5. (Ship-building.) A framework of timbers used to support a vessel about to be launched; also, a similar framework used to support vessels when drawn up an inclined plane, or across a narrow strip of land.
Sense 6. (Surg.) A case for a broken bone.