CRAFT

Craft (krft), n. Etym: [AS. cr 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.)

Defn: 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.