noun

1. a baby's small bed, usually on rockers
2. the earliest period of one's life; infancy
3. the place of a thing's beginning or early development the cradle of civilization
4. Old Poet. a place of rest rocked in the cradle of the deep
5. anything resembling a cradle or used somewhat like a cradle, as for holding or rocking; specif.,
   1. wooden or metal framework to support or lift a boat, ship, aircraft, etc. that is being built or repaired
   2. ☆ creeper (sense )
   3. the support on which the handset of a telephone (cradle telephone) rests when not in use
   4. Agric. a frame fastened to a scythe (cradle scythe) so that the grain can be laid evenly as it is cut
   5. Med. a frame for keeping bedclothes from touching an injured limb, etc.
   6. ☆ Mining a boxlike device on rockers, for washing the gold out of gold-bearing sand

Etymology: ME cradel < OE cradol < *kradula, little basket; akin to OHG kratto, basket < IE base *ger-, to twist, turn > crank, cramp, creek

transitive verb cradled -·dled, cradling -·dling

1. to place, rock, or hold in or as in a cradle
2. to take care of in infancy; nurture
3. to cut (grain) with a cradle scythe
4. ☆ Mining to wash (gold-bearing sand) in a cradle

intransitive verb