craft
UK /ˈkɹɑːft/ · US /ˈkɹæft/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms crafts crafting crafted Kraft
- noun (uncountable, obsolete) Strength; power; might; force .
- noun Ability, skillfulness, especially skill in making plans and carrying them into execution; dexterity in managing affairs, adroitness, practical cunning; ingenuity in constructing, dexterity .
- noun Cunning, art, skill, or dexterity applied to bad purposes; artifice; guile; subtlety; shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception .
- noun (obsolete) Occult art, magic .
- noun (countable, obsolete in the general sense) A work or product of art .
- noun (collective or plural) Handmade items, especially domestic or decorative objects; handicrafts .
- noun (countable, obsolete) A device, a means; a magical device, spell or enchantment .
- noun (countable, obsolete) Learning of the schools, scholarship; a branch of learning or knowledge, a science, especially one of the ‘seven liberal arts’ of the medieval universities .
- verb To make by hand and with much skill.
- verb To construct, develop something (like a skilled craftsman).
- verb (video games) To combine multiple items to form a new item, such as armour or medicine.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
potence strength authority disposition force might potency power virtue technique proficiency ability aptitude capacity capability competency competence cunning dexterity ease trade craftsmanship workmanship craftiness foxiness guile slyness wiliness
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English craft (“strength, skill”), from Old English cræft (“strength, skill”), from Proto-West Germanic *kraftu, from Proto-Germanic *kraftuz (“strength, power”); further origin obscure.
Cognate with Dutch kracht (“strength, power, force”), German Kraft (“strength, power, force, energy, employee”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish kraft (“strength, power, force”), Faroese and Icelandic kraftur (“strength”).
* As an English surname, from the noun craft.
* Also as an English surname, from Croft in Leicestershire.
* As a German, Jewish, Danish, and Swedish surname, Americanized from Kraft.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Strength; might; secret power. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- noun Art or skill; dexterity in particular manual employment; hence, the occupation or employment itself; manual art; a trade.
- verb To play tricks; to practice artifice. [Obs.]
- verb a creator of great skill in the manual arts.
Etymology [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.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “craft”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details