craft

[kraft, krahft] /kræft, krɑft/
noun, plural crafts or for 5, 8, craft.
1.
an art, trade, or occupation requiring special skill, especially manual skill:
the craft of a mason.
2.
skill; dexterity:
The silversmith worked with great craft.
3.
skill or ability used for bad purposes; cunning; deceit; guile.
4.
the members of a trade or profession collectively; a guild.
5.
a ship or other vessel.
6.
a number of ships or other vessels taken as a whole:
The craft were warned of possible heavy squalls.
7.
aircraft collectively.
8.
a single aircraft.
verb (used with object)
9.
to make or manufacture (an object, objects, product, etc.) with skill and careful attention to detail.
Origin
before 900; Middle English; Old English cræft strength, skill; cognate with German Kraft, Dutch kracht, Old Norse kraptr
Related forms
craftless, adjective
Synonyms
1. metier. 2. talent, ability. 3. craftiness, shrewdness, deceitfulness, deception. See cunning.
Examples from the web for craft
  • Students enrolled to learn the intellectual discipline and craft of the law, and that's exactly what they got.
  • Local outfitters can supply water craft from canoes to tanks.
  • The craft inside the cloud measured how water vapor and other cloud components were affected.
  • We need to re-instate a sort of apprenticeship model where people can learn any craft, trade, or work.
  • Remember, if writing is a craft it is also business.
  • Ginger had to make a shaky craft of her paycheck to bear me across the sea.
  • Instead, the craft remains in its original orbit, obstinately refusing to communicate with engineers on the ground.
  • Cut off the sides of the tray with a craft knife, leaving you with a flat, smooth surface.
  • The point where craft meets geek is a beautiful place.
  • Miller helps about a dozen students craft serious research projects each semester.
British Dictionary definitions for craft

craft

/krɑːft/
noun
1.
skill or ability, esp in handiwork
2.
skill in deception and trickery; guile; cunning
3.
an occupation or trade requiring special skill, esp manual dexterity
4.
  1. the members of such a trade, regarded collectively
  2. (as modifier): a craft guild
5.
a single vessel, aircraft, or spacecraft
6.
(functioning as pl) ships, boats, aircraft, or spacecraft collectively
verb
7.
(transitive) to make or fashion with skill, esp by hand
Word Origin
Old English cræft skill, strength; related to Old Norse kraptr power, skill, Old High German kraft
Word Origin and History for craft
n.

Old English cræft, originally "power, physical strength, might," from Proto-Germanic *krab-/*kraf- (cf. Old Frisian kreft, Old High German chraft, German Kraft "strength, skill;" Old Norse kraptr "strength, virtue"). Sense expanded in Old English to include "skill, art, science, talent" (via a notion of "mental power"), which led to the meaning "trade, handicraft, calling." The word still was used for "might, power" in Middle English.

Use for "small boat" is first recorded 1670s, probably from a phrase resembling vessels of small craft and referring either to the trade they did or the seamanship they required, or perhaps it preserves the word in its original sense of "power."

v.

Old English cræftan "to exercise a craft, build," from the same source as craft (n.). Meaning "to make skilfully" is from early 15c., obsolete from 16c., but revived c.1950s, largely in U.S. advertising and commercial senses. Related: Crafted; crafting.

Related Abbreviations for craft

CRAFT

can't remember a fucking thing