Cradle may refer to:
Mechanical devices:
- Bassinet, a small bed, often on rockers, in which babies and small children sleep
- Ship cradle, supports a ship that is dry docked
- Cradle (grain), in agriculture is a device based upon a scythe to cleanly reap and harvest grain
- Cradle (mining), used to separate gold from other rocks.
- Newton's cradle, a device that demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy via a series of swinging spheres
Arts and literature:
- Cradle (band), a popular Malay rock band from Singapore that was formed in 1995 by four well-known musicians in the music industry at that time
- Cradle (novel), a novel by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee
- Cradle (song), a single released by British girl group Atomic Kitten
- The Cradle, a 2007 horror film starring Lukas Haas and Emily Hampshire
- Cradle of filth, an Extreme metal band from Suffolk, England
- Cradle (circus act), an aerial circus act
- Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, a recycling and industrial management book
- The Pleasure Seekers/Cradle#Cradle, a band that Suzi Quatro played in (in the late 1960s and early 1970s) before she became famous
As a metaphor for humanity's origins:
- Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage Site near Johannesburg in South Africa, where many early hominid remains were discovered
- Cradle of civilization, any of the various regions regarded as the earliest centers of civilization
- Cradle of Liberty (disambiguation)
Other:
- Cradle (circus act) (also known as aerial cradle or casting cradle), a type of aerial circus act
- Cradle (wrestling), a very basic move in amateur wrestling
- Cradle to Cradle, a biomimetic approach to the design of systems
Famous quotes containing the word cradle:
“Nor envy’s snaky eye, finds harbour here,
Nor flatterers’ venomous insinuations,
Nor cunning humorists’ puddled opinions,
Nor courteous ruin of proffered usury,
Nor time prattled away, cradle of ignorance,
Nor causeless duty, nor comber of arrogance,
Nor trifling title of vanity dazzleth us,
Nor golden manacles stand for a paradise;”
—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
“Thou blind man’s mark, thou fool’s self-chosen snare,
Fond Fancy’s scum and dregs of scattered thought,
Band of all evils, cradle of causeless care,
Thou web of will whose end is never wrought;
Desire! desire, I have too dearly bought
With price of mangled mind thy worthless ware;”
—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
“So I cradle this average violin that knows
Only forgotten showtunes, but argues
The possibility of free declamation anchored
To a dull refrain....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)