cradle

What it means

1. A bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinging on pivots.

   the cradle that received thee at thy birth

   1782, William Cowper, Expostulation

   2 more examples

   No sooner was I crept out of my cradle / But I was made a king, at nine months old.

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ix]

   Hush-a-by, baby, upon the tree-top; / When the wind blows the cradle will rock; / When the bough breaks the cradle will fall; / Down will come cradle and baby and all.

   1805, Songs for the Nursery, page 5

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

   a cradle of crime

   1 more example

   the cradle of liberty

3. figurativelyInfancy, or very early life.

   from the cradle to the grave

   2 more examples

   from their cradles bred together

   c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   a form of worship in which they had been educated from their cradle

   1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater

In a sentence

No sooner was I crept out of my cradle / But I was made a king, at nine months old.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ix]

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Germanic*kradô“(wicker) basket”
2. Proto-Germanic*kradulaz
3. Proto-West Germanic*kradul
4. Old Englishcradol
5. Middle Englishcradel
6. Englishcradle

From Middle English cradel, credel, from Old English cradol, from Proto-West Germanic *kradul, from Proto-Germanic *kradulaz, from Proto-Germanic *kradô (“(wicker) basket”). Related to cart.