Adjacent Words

Craft definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CRAFT, n.
1. Art; ability; dexterity; skill.
Poesy is the poets skill or craft of making--
2. Cunning, art or skill, in a bad sense, or applied to bad purposes; artifice; guile; skill or dexterity employed to effect purposes by deceit.
The chief priests and scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. Mark 14.
3. Art; skill; dexterity in a particular manual occupation; hence, the occupation or employment itself; manual art; trade.
Ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. Acts 19.
4. All sorts of vessels employed in loading or unloading ships, as lighters, hoys, barges, scows, etc.
Small craft is a term given to small vessels of all hinds, as sloops, schooners, cutters, etc.
CRAFT, v.i. To play tricks. [Not in use.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the skilled practice of a practical occupation; "he learned his trade as an apprentice" [syn: trade, craft]
2: a vehicle designed for navigation in or on water or air or through outer space
3: people who perform a particular kind of skilled work; "he represented the craft of brewers"; "as they say in the trade" [syn: craft, trade]
4: skill in an occupation or trade [syn: craft, craftsmanship, workmanship]
5: shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception [syn: craft, craftiness, cunning, foxiness, guile, slyness, wiliness] v
1: make by hand and with much skill; "The artisan crafted a complicated tool"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, strength, skill, from Old English cræft; akin to Old High German kraft strength Date: before 12th century 1. skill in planning, making, or executing ; dexterity 2. a. an occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill <the carpenter's craft> <the craft of writing plays> <crafts such as pottery, carpentry, and sewing> b. plural articles made by craftspeople <a store selling crafts> <a crafts fair> 3. skill in deceiving to gain an end <used craft and guile to close the deal> 4. the members of a trade or trade association 5. plural usually craft a. a boat especially of small size b. aircraft c. spacecraft Synonyms: see art II. transitive verb Date: 15th century to make or produce with care, skill, or ingenuity <is crafting a new sculpture> <a carefully crafted story> • crafter noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 skill, esp. in practical arts. 2 a (esp. in comb.) a trade or an art (statecraft; handicraft; priestcraft; the craft of pottery). b the members of a craft. 3 (pl. craft) a a boat or vessel. b an aircraft or spacecraft. 4 cunning or deceit. 5 (the Craft) the brotherhood of Freemasons. --v.tr. make in a skilful way (crafted a poem; a well-crafted piece of work). Phrases and idioms: craft-brother a fellow worker in the same trade. craft-guild hist. a guild of workers of the same trade. Etymology: OE cræft

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Craft Craft, v. t. To play tricks; to practice artifice. [Obs.] You have crafted fair. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Craft Craft (kr[.a]ft), n. [AS. cr[ae]ft strength, skill, art, cunning; akin to OS., G., Sw., & Dan. kraft strength, D. kracht, Icel. kraptr; perh. originally, a drawing together, stretching, from the root of E. cramp.] 1. Strength; might; secret power. [Obs.] --Chaucer. 2. Art or skill; dexterity in particular manual employment; hence, the occupation or employment itself; manual art; a trade. Ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. --Acts xix. 25. A poem is the work of the poet; poesy is his skill or craft of making. --B. Jonson. Since the birth of time, throughout all ages and nations, Has the craft of the smith been held in repute. --Longfellow. 3. Those engaged in any trade, taken collectively; a guild; as, the craft of ironmongers. The control of trade passed from the merchant guilds to the new craft guilds. --J. R. Green. 4. Cunning, art, or skill, in a bad sense, or applied to bad purposes; artifice; guile; skill or dexterity employed to effect purposes by deceit or shrewd devices. You have that crooked wisdom which is called craft. --Hobbes. The chief priets and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. --Mark xiv. 1. 5. (Naut.) A vessel; vessels of any kind; -- generally used in a collective sense. The evolutions of the numerous tiny craft moving over the lake. --Prof. Wilson. Small crafts, small vessels, as sloops, schooners, ets.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(crafts, crafting, crafted) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. Note: 'craft' is both the singular and the plural form for meaning 1. 1. You can refer to a boat, a spacecraft, or an aircraft as a craft. With great difficulty, the fisherman manoeuvred his small craft close to the reef... N-COUNT see also landing craft 2. A craft is an activity such as weaving, carving, or pottery that involves making things skilfully with your hands. All kinds of traditional craft industries are preserved here. N-COUNT 3. You can use craft to refer to any activity or job that involves doing something skilfully. Maurice Murphy, one of the country's leading classical trumpeters, learnt his craft with the Black Dyke Mills band. N-COUNT 4. If something is crafted, it is made skilfully. The windows would probably have been crafted in the latter part of the Middle Ages... Many delegates were willing to craft a compromise... The author extracts the maximum from every carefully-crafted scene in this witty tale. ...original, hand-crafted bags at affordable prices. VERB: be V-ed, V n, V-ed, V-ed

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Skill, ability, talent, power, cleverness, dexterity, tact, aptitude, aptness, expertness, readiness. 2. Artifice, artfulness, shrewdness, guile, deceit, deceitfulness, deception, subtlety, cunning, craftiness. 3. Art, handicraft, trade, employment, business, vocation, calling, avocation. 4. Vessel.

Moby Thesaurus

Italian hand, ability, acuteness, address, adeptness, adroitness, aeroplane, aircraft, airmanship, animal cunning, argosy, art, artful dodge, artfulness, artifice, artisan work, artisanship, artistry, astuteness, bark, blind, boat, bottom, bravura, brilliance, bucket, business, cageyness, callidity, calling, canniness, capability, capacity, career, career building, careerism, chicanery, cleverness, command, competence, conspiracy, contrivance, control, coordination, coup, craftiness, craftsmanship, craftwork, cunning, cunningness, cute trick, deceit, deceitfulness, deftness, design, device, deviousness, dexterity, dexterousness, dextrousness, diplomacy, dodge, duplicity, efficiency, expedient, expertise, expertness, fabricate, facility, fakement, falseheartedness, falseness, fashion, feint, fetch, fine Italian hand, finesse, flair, foxiness, fraud, furtiveness, gambit, game, gamesmanship, genius, gimmick, grace, grift, grip, guile, guilefulness, handicraft, handiness, handiwork, hooker, horsemanship, hovercraft, hulk, hull, hypocrisy, indirection, industrial art, industrial design, ingeniousness, ingenuity, insidiousness, intrigue, inventiveness, job, jugglery, keel, knavery, know-how, leviathan, lifework, line, line of business, line of work, little game, low cunning, make, maneuver, manual art, marksmanship, mastership, mastery, mechanics, mechanism, metalcraft, method, metier, mission, move, mystery, number, occupation, one-upmanship, packet, pawkiness, plane, plot, ploy, practical ability, practice, profession, proficiency, prowess, pursuit, quickness, racket, readiness, red herring, resource, resourcefulness, rocket, ruse, satanic cunning, savoir-faire, savvy, scheme, science, seamanship, sharpness, shift, shiftiness, ship, shrewdness, skill, skillfulness, sleight, slickness, slipperiness, slyness, sneak attack, sneakiness, sophistry, spacecraft, spaceship, specialization, specialty, stealth, stealthiness, stonecraft, stratagem, strategy, style, subterfuge, subtility, subtilty, subtleness, subtlety, suppleness, surreptitiousness, tact, tactfulness, tactic, talent, technic, technical brilliance, technical know-how, technical knowledge, technical mastery, technical skill, technics, technique, technology, timing, trade, treacherousness, trick, trickery, trickiness, tub, underhandedness, vessel, virtuosity, vocation, walk, walk of life, wariness, watercraft, wile, wiles, wiliness, wily device, wit, wizardry, woodcraft, work, workmanship