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Cradle

Household Objects
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A small bed that rocks or holds an infant. It often symbolizes beginnings, tenderness, vulnerability, and the cycle of generations.

Detailed Definition
A cradle is a narrow bed made for a baby, sometimes mounted on curved runners so it can be gently rocked. In poetry, it carries the music of lullabies and the emotional intensity of new life, but it can also imply anxiety, loss, or the fragile dependence of childhood. An empty cradle may become especially poignant, suggesting absence or interrupted lineage. Its rocking motion allows poets to connect maternal care, sleep, memory, and the recurring rhythm of birth and death.
Example
Example in poetry:
William Blake’s “The Cradle Song” uses the cradle as a setting for tenderness, sleep, and parental care; “The cradle rocked though no hand touched it” can create an eerie or haunted mood; A poet may use “the empty cradle” to suggest loss without directly naming it; “Her grandmother’s cradle held three generations of lullabies” makes the object a vessel of family memory
Additional Notes
A cradle can join infancy with ancestry, since rocking motion often suggests both nurture and the repeating cycle of generations.
Other Meanings of “Cradle”
Also Known As
Cot Bassinet
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