How to use cradle in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Cradle means a bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinging on pivots. Example: “The cradle was ill-made. One victim fell into the sea and was lost and the ensuing delay cost three more lives.”

Examples of cradle by meaning

nounThe place of origin, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence.

a cradle of crime
the cradle of liberty

nounInfancy, or very early life.

from the cradle to the grave

nounA basket or apparatus in which, when a line has been made fast to a wrecked ship from the shore, the people are brought...

The cradle was ill-made. One victim fell into the sea and was lost and the ensuing delay cost three more lives.

nounA rest for the receiver of a telephone, or for certain computer hardware.

He slammed the handset into the cradle.

verbTo wrap protectively, to hold gently and protectively.

cradling the injured man’s head in her arms
The little girl was left alone in her tiny bedroom, cradling her dead hamster.2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN

More sentences with cradle

The woman was cradling the baby in the crook of her arm as she fed it.From the entry cradling
Like so many others with blisterless cradled feet, I get it.2023 July 10, Flora Gill, “The joy of ‘ugly’ Birkenstocks”, in The Spectator. From the entry blisterless
If our neighbours are anything to go by, we are in for an epidemic of empty cradles.2021 April 2, Colin Brazier, “Britain's Covid baby bust is bleak news”, in The Spectator, London: Press Holdings, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived…. From the entry coronababy
It finally settled at Sze Yin, and has become the cradle of elite naval officers.(Can we date this quote?), “Gun Salutes”, in Republic of China Naval Academy, archived from the original on 07 Jan 2016. From the entry Hsiamen
"It is the cradle of Zen in China; it has Shaolin; it has a very profound culture.2008 August 31, David Barboza, quoting Mei Shuaiyuan, “In the mountains, another big Chinese extravaganza”, in The Washington Post…. From the entry Dengfeng
See Figure 5-5 for an example of a bouffant cap on a face cradle.2006, Ralph Stephens, Therapeutic Chair Massage, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, →ISBN, page 28. From the entry buffont
The actress, 31, also pooh-poohs the notion that she's robbing the cradle with Timberlake, 22.2004 January 8, Karen Thomas, “Cameron won't pull a Britney”, in USA Today. From the entry rob the cradle
Daughters, rock the cradle, tell me where you found what you have enweaved.1998, Fred Dortort, The Dialectic of Vision: A Contrary Reading of William Blake’s Jerusalem (The Clinamen Studies Series), Station Hill…. From the entry enweave
The cradle part of the demonstrator model is lined with foam rubber and covered with pink quilting.1957 August 21, Elizabeth Morgan, “Baby-Rocking Mother-⁠-⁠-Plug That Cradle In”, in The Atlanta Constitution, volume XC, number 56…. From the entry metalwright
You are a comic little figure, hopping from the cradle to the grave.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp.…. From the entry life
Lidia Hunt, the district superintendent of the cradle roll department, visited the Hyde Park A.1914 March 7, L. W. Washington, “The Hyde Park News”, in Julius F. Taylor, editor, The Broad Ax, volume XIX, number 24, Chicago, Ill.…. From the entry adviseress
Sunday school and organized a missionary and a cradle roll club or society.1914 March 7, L. W. Washington, “The Hyde Park News”, in Julius F. Taylor, editor, The Broad Ax, volume XIX, number 24, Chicago, Ill.…. From the entry adviseress
His dreams were all cradled in the heart of Jesus.2023, David R. Denny, Meditations from the Classics: Ancient Voices for Modern Listeners, Collective Ink, page 157. From the entry humblebrag
"I'm pregnant," Jazmyne says as she cradles her belly.2022 July 7, Asa Hawks, “LOVE AFTER LOCKUP Lizzie Kommes to be a grandma, daughter Jazmyne is pregnant!”, in Starcasm, archived from the…. From the entry gam gam
Cradling a onesied twin in each arm, his button-down shirt the periwinkle blue of his eyes, he looked keenly amiable.2022, Tad Friend, “Borderlands”, in In the Early Times: A Life Reframed, Crown, →ISBN, page 42. From the entry onesied
The hard woods were used for pegging, the soft woods for cradling the load and the springy woods for carrying it.2013, Eric Sloane, Weather Almanac, →ISBN, page 48. From the entry springy
Cradled in the arms of Night, the gleam of moon and candlelight bring images alive from days gone by.2013, Will Moody, Candlelight Reflections, page 65. From the entry candlelight
At a reception counter a plump woman sat on a stool, her head cradled on her folded arms, fast asleep.2009, Eliot Pattison, “Chapter Seven”, in The Lord of Death, New York: Soho Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 113. From the entry Tingri
So the tree house itself could’ve been a celebration of Chad’s birth—the epitome of a rockabye-baby cradle in the tree top?2004, Cris Mazza, Homeland, Red Hen Press, →ISBN, page 40. From the entry rockabye
Kydd went to the shot garland around the main hatch and rolled a ball on to the cradle.2002, Julian Stockwin, Kydd: A Naval Adventure, →ISBN, page 214. From the entry shot garland
Competitions are also being organized by the Museum in games like congkak, gasing (top-spinning), capteh, five stones and cat’s cradle.1979 May 21, “The Business Times”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 6. From the entry congkak
Nervewracked, they stumble from the cradle to the grave.1977, Maximilian Beyer, The purpose of life, page 106. From the entry nervewracked
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.1922, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Education and Sex in Man, Woman and Child”, in Fantasia of the Unconscious, New York, N.Y.: Thomas…. From the entry the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world
Nay, she makes man discover that cradles should not be rocked, in order that her hands may be left free.1922, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Education and Sex in Man, Woman and Child”, in Fantasia of the Unconscious, New York, N.Y.: Thomas…. From the entry the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world
He was one of the men, we say, who fell out of his cradle and knocked his head.1909, Edward R. Hartley, Train Talks, page 4. From the entry tenpence to the shilling
Aleck was a Christian from the cradle, and duty and the force of habit required her to go through the motions.1905, Mark Twain, chapter 3, in The $30,000 Bequest. From the entry go through the motions
As the planet warms over the next decades, the Amazon will become a cradle of human discovery or an ecological crime scene.2020 October 2, Chris Feliciano Arnold, “Captain Chain Saw's Delusion”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company…. From the entry warm over
Consumed, with its narrative cat’s cradle tightly woven around putatively anthropophagic husband-and-wife French philosophers, wouldn’t be easy to pitch to Hollywood execs.2015, Will Self, ‘Man-Eating Philosophers’, London Review of Books, volume 37, number 12. From the entry anthropophagic
This version, also called Eggs in the Basket, marries buttery toast with a hole in the center that cradles a fried egg.2015, Jodi Liano, “Toad in the Hole”, in Eggs: Fresh, Simple Recipes for Frittatas, Omelets, Scrambles & More, San Francisco, Calif.…. From the entry egg in the basket
Gilly cradled her daughter close, even when the baby let out a “meep” of protest before getting back to the business of nursing.2013, Megan Hart, Precious and Fragile Things, page 407. From the entry meep
Take special precaution if homeboy is exhibiting these cradle robbing behaviors when he is over the legal alcohol age limit of 21.2013, Bill E. Beck, Wait, What? I'd Rather Be Single, page 51. From the entry underager
The bag seethed in her hand, not unpleasantly, as computational monofilaments shifted and flowed under her touch until they cradled the palps of her fingers.2012, Sean Stewart, Star Wars: Dark Rendezvous, Random House, →ISBN. From the entry palp
There are many domicolous species which spin tubes or cradles from a web emitted from the apices of four of the 14 main legs.2012, C.W. Hart, Pollution Ecology of Estuarine Invertebrates, page 347. From the entry domicolous

Meaning of cradle

noun A bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinging on pivots.
noun The place of origin, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence.
noun Infancy, or very early life.

Full definition of cradle

Questions about cradle in a sentence

How do you use cradle in a sentence?: Cradle is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The cradle was ill-made. One victim fell into the sea and was lost and the ensuing delay cost three more lives.”
What is a short sentence with cradle?: “a cradle of crime”
What does cradle mean?: Cradle means a bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinging on pivots.

Adapted from Wiktionary: cradle (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use cradle in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/cradle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.