Craft (krȧft), n. [AS.
cræft 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 priests 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.
Craft, v. t. To play tricks;
to practice artifice. [Obs.]
You have crafted fair.
Shak.