Word.ws English Dictionary

cradling

cradling is the present participle and gerund of cradle.

Noun

cradling (plural cradlings)

  1. The act by which one cradles a child etc.
    • About four thousand cradlings were observed among five mother-infant pairs during the first 15 weeks of each infant's life.1967, Stuart A. Altmann, Social communication among primates
  2. The act of using a cradle (the tool).
  3. The cutting of a cask into two pieces lengthwise, to enable it to pass a narrow place, the two parts being afterwards united and rehooped.
  4. The framework in arched or coved ceilings to which the laths are nailed.
    • the ceiling of the circular part is deeply panelled, the main ribs forming the core for the cradling1853, Thomas Tredgold, Elementary Principles of Carpentry

Meaning of cradle

Verb

cradle (third-person singular simple present cradles, present participle cradling, simple past and past participle cradled)

  1. (transitive) To contain in or as if in a cradle.
  2. (transitive) To rock (a baby to sleep).
  3. (transitive) To wrap protectively, to hold gently and protectively.
    • cradling the injured man’s head in her arms
  4. To lull or quieten, as if by rocking.
  5. To nurse or train in infancy.
    • He that hath been cradled in majesty will not leave the throne to play with beggars.1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC
  6. To rock the lacrosse stick back and forth in order to keep the ball in the head by means of centrifugal force.

See all 24 meanings of cradle

Forms of cradling

pluralcradlings

Questions about cradling

What does cradling mean?
Cradling means the act by which one cradles a child etc.
What is cradling the present participle and gerund of?
Cradling is the present participle and gerund of cradle.
What part of speech is cradling?
Cradling is a noun.
What is the plural of cradling?
The plural of cradling is cradlings.

Words near cradling in the dictionary

  1. cradlesome
  2. cradlesong
  3. cradlesongs
  4. Cradley
  5. Cradley Heath
  6. cradling
  7. cradlings
  8. Cradoc
  9. Cradock
  10. Cradocks
  11. Crady

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cradling (page history and authors); cradle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cradling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cradling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.