Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, 11th Edition
CRADLE
I. noun
Etymology: Middle English cradel, from Old English cradol; perhaps akin to Old High German kratto basket, Sanskrit grantha knot Date: before 12th century
1. a bed or cot for a baby usually on rockers or pivots, a framework or support suggestive of a baby's cradle: as, a framework of bars and rods, the support for a telephone receiver or handset, an implement with rods like fingers attached to a scythe and used formerly for harvesting grain, a frame to keep the bedclothes from contact with an injured part of the body,
2. the earliest period of life ; infancy , a place of origin , a rocking device used in panning for gold,
II. verb (cradled; cradling)
Date: 15th century
transitive verb
1. to place or keep in or as if in a cradle, shelter , rear , to support protectively or intimately , to cut (grain) with a cradle scythe, to place, raise, support, or transport on a cradle, intransitive verb to rest in or as if in a cradle