Craft

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. [1913 Webster]

2. Art or skill; dexterity in particular manual employment; hence, the occupation or employment itself; manual art; a trade. [1913 Webster]

Ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. --Acts xix. 25. [1913 Webster]

A poem is the work of the poet; poesy is his skill or craft of making. --B. Jonson. [1913 Webster]

Since the birth of time, throughout all ages and nations, Has the craft of the smith been held in repute. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster]

3. Those engaged in any trade, taken collectively; a guild; as, the craft of ironmongers. [1913 Webster]

The control of trade passed from the merchant guilds to the new craft guilds. --J. R. Green. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

You have that crooked wisdom which is called craft. --Hobbes. [1913 Webster]

The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. --Mark xiv. 1. [1913 Webster]

5. (Naut.) A vessel; vessels of any kind; -- generally used in a collective sense. [1913 Webster]

The evolutions of the numerous tiny craft moving over the lake. --Prof. Wilson. [1913 Webster]

{Small crafts}, small vessels, as sloops, schooners, ets. [1913 Webster]