craft
Top
(krăft) 
n.
n.
- Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency. See synonyms at art1.
- Skill in evasion or deception; guile.
- An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or skilled artistry.
- The membership of such an occupation or trade; guild.
- pl., craft. A boat, ship, or aircraft.
- To make by hand.
- Usage Problem. To make or construct (something) in a manner suggesting great care or ingenuity: "It was not the Chamber of Commerce that crafted the public policies that have resulted in a $26 billion annual subvention to the farmers" (William F. Buckley, Jr.).
[Middle English, from Old English cræft.]
crafter craft'er n.USAGE NOTE Craft has been used as a verb since the Old English period and was used in Middle English to refer specifically to the artful construction of a text or discourse. In recent years, crafted, the past participle of craft, has enjoyed a vogue as a participle referring to well-wrought writing. Craft is more acceptable when applied to literary works than to other sorts of writing, and more acceptable as a participle than as a verb. Seventy-three percent of the Usage Panel accepts the phrase beautifully crafted prose. By contrast, only 35 percent accept the sentence The planners crafted their proposal so as to anticipate the objections of local businesses.
Top
has been revived as a verb in the language of advertising (bungalows of locally crafted brick and tile) and in literary and other criticism
(He had by then perfected the swagger of the Identikit newspaper tycoon and had crafted his performance beautifully—Independent on Sunday, 2005).
| crabbed, cowardly, covert | |
| crape, crêpe, crash, crayfish |
Roget's Thesaurus:
Top
craft
noun
- Natural or acquired facility in a specific activity: ability, adeptness, art, command, expertise, expertness, knack, mastery, proficiency, skill, technique. Informal know-how. See ability/inability, knowledge/ignorance.
- Deceitful cleverness: art, artfulness, artifice, craftiness, cunning, foxiness, guile, slyness, wiliness. See honest/dishonest, means.
- Lack of straightforwardness and honesty in action: chicanery, craftiness, deviousness, dishonesty, indirection, shadiness, shiftiness, slyness, sneakiness, trickery, trickiness, underhandedness. See honest/dishonest.
- Activity pursued as a livelihood: art, business, calling, career, employment, job, line, métier, occupation, profession, pursuit, trade, vocation, work. Slang racket. Archaic employ. See action/inaction.
Antonyms by Answers.com:
Top
craft
n
Definition: business, discipline
Antonyms: avocation, entertainment, recreation
n
Definition: deceit, scheme
Antonyms: honesty, openness
Quotes About:
Top
Crafts
Quotes:
"A man cannot make a pair of shoes rightly unless he do it in a devout manner."
- Thomas Carlyle
"The irregular and intimate quality of things made entirely by the human hand."
- Willa Cather
"History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird."
- Joseph Conrad
"It is the privilege of any human work which is well done to invest the doer with a certain haughtiness. He can well afford not to conciliate, whose faithful work will answer for him."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Let a human being throw the energies of his soul into the making of something, and the instinct of workmanship will take care of his honesty."
- Walter Lippmann
"No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect."
- George Bernard Shaw
See more famous quotes about Crafts
Random House Word Menu:
Top
categories related to 'craft'
- Types of Ships and Boats - craft: boat or vessel, esp. small one
- Labor - craft: occupation requiring special training or skill
- Other Crafts - craft: any art, trade, or occupation requiring the skilled working of materials to form decorative or useful objects, often practiced as a recreational activity; handicraft
- Strategy and Tactics - craft: skill or cunning in achieving ends or deceiving others
See crossword solutions for the clue
Top
"Crafts" redirects here. For "The Craft", see The Craft. For other uses, see Craft (disambiguation) and Crafts (disambiguation).
 |
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into artisan. (Discuss) Proposed since March 2012. |
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011) |
A craft is a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small-scale production of goods. The traditional terms craftsman and craftswoman are nowadays often replaced by artisan and rarely by craftsperson (craftspeople).
|
Contents
|
Development from the past until today
Historically, craftsmen tended to concentrate in urban centers and formed guilds. The skill required by their professions and the need to be permanently involved in the exchange of goods also demanded a generally higher level of education, and craftsmen were usually in a more privileged position than the peasantry in societal hierarchy. The households of craftsmen were not as self-sufficient as those of people engaged in agricultural work and therefore had to rely on the exchange of goods.
Once an apprentice of a craft had finished his apprenticeship, he would become a journeyman searching for a place to set up his own shop and make a living. After he set up his own shop, he could then call himself a master of his craft.
This system of a stepwise approach to mastery of a craft, which includes the obtainment of a certain amount of education and the learning of skills, has survived in some countries of the world until today. But crafts have undergone deep structural changes during and since the era of the Industrial Revolution. The mass production of goods by large-scale industry has limited crafts to market segments in which industry's modes of functioning or its mass-produced goods would not or cannot satisfy the preferences of potential buyers. Moreover, as an outcome of these changes, craftspeople today increasingly make use of semi-finished components or materials and adapt these to their customers' requirements or demands and, if necessary, to the environments of their customers. They thus participate in a certain division of labour between industry and craft.
Classification
Main article: Outline of crafts
In English, to describe something as a craft is to describe it as lying somewhere between an art (which relies on talent and technique) and a science (which relies on knowledge). In this sense, the English word craft is roughly equivalent to the ancient Greek term techne. Folk art follows craft traditions, in contrast to fine art or "high art".
Handicraft
Main article: Handicraft
Handicraft is the "traditional" main sector of the crafts, it is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools. Usually the term is applied to traditional means of making goods. The individual artisanship of the items is a paramount criterion, such items often have cultural and/or religious significance. Items made by mass production or machines are not handicraft goods.
The Arts and Crafts Movement
Main article: Arts and Crafts Movement
The term crafts is often used to describe the family of artistic practices within the family decorative arts that traditionally are defined by their relationship to functional or utilitarian products (such as sculptural forms in the vessel tradition) or by their use of such natural media as wood, clay, ceramics, glass, textiles, and metal.
Studio crafts
Main article: Studio craft
Crafts practiced by independent artists working alone or in small groups are often referred to as studio craft. Studio craft includes studio pottery, metal work, weaving, wood turning, paper and other forms of wood working, glass blowing, and glass art.
Craft fairs
A craft fair is an organized event to display crafts by a number of exhibitors. There are craft shops where such goods are sold and craft communities, such as Craftster, where expertise is shared.
Tradesman
Main article: Tradesman
A tradesman is a skilled manual worker in a particular trade or craft. Economically and socially, a tradesman's status is considered between a laborer and a professional, with a high degree of both practical and theoretical knowledge of their trade. In cultures where professional careers are highly prized there can be a shortage of skilled manual workers, leading to lucrative niche markets in the trades.
See also
|
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
Top
Craft
Dansk (Danish)
n. - evne, fag, kunst, færdighed, fartøj, fly, rumfartøj, snuhed
v. tr. - udforme, forfærdige, komponere
idioms:
- craft fair udstilling af kunsthåndværk
Nederlands (Dutch)
ambacht, listigheid, vaardigheid, vaar-/ vliegtuig, bedrijfstak, de vrijmetselarij, vervaardigen
Français (French)
n. - métier, art, artisanat, ruse, embarcation, (Aérosp) vaisseau spatial
v. tr. - faire (qch) à la main
idioms:
- craft fair foire artisanale
Deutsch (German)
n. - Boot, Flugzeug, Gewerbe, Kunst, Handwerk, List
v. - (gekonnt) herstellen
idioms:
- craft fair Kunsthandwerksmesse
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - δεξιοτεχνία, μαστοριά, τέχνη, χειροτεχνία, πανουργία, κατεργαριά, σκάφος, συντεχνία, συνάφι
v. - τεχνουργώ, κατεργάζομαι
idioms:
- craft fair έκθεση χειροτεχνίας/χειροτεχνημάτων
Italiano (Italian)
imbarcazione, mestiere, astuzia
idioms:
- craft fair fiera dell'artigianato
Português (Portuguese)
n. - arte (f), astúcia (f), ofício (m)
v. - pregar peças
idioms:
- craft fair feira (f) de artesanato
Русский (Russian)
судно, ремесло, хитрость
idioms:
- craft fair ярмарка
Español (Spanish)
n. - embarcación, navío, arte, trabajo manual, oficio
v. tr. - realizar un oficio o manualidad
idioms:
- craft fair feria de artesanías
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - skicklighet, hantverk, slöjd, skrå, list, fartyg
v. - snitsa till, snickra till
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
技艺, 诡计, 手艺, 精巧地制作
idioms:
- craft fair 工艺展览
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 技藝, 詭計, 手藝
v. tr. - 精巧地製作
idioms:
- craft fair 工藝展覽
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 기술, 교묘함, 직업, 동업
v. tr. - 정교하게 만들다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 技能, 技術, 手工業, 職業, 同業者, 船舶, 狡猾, 同業組合
v. - 手で作る
idioms:
- craft fair クラフト祭
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) حرفه, صنعه, مركب, قارب, مكر (فعل) صنع باليد, نحت
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - אומנות, אגוד מקצועי, ספינה, מטוס, ערמומיות
v. tr. - עשה בדרך מיומנת
If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
Roget's Thesaurus
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
Random House Word Menu
© 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier.
Write Brothers Inc.
All rights reserved.
Read more
Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary
Collins Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary © Anne Bradford, 1986, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008
HarperCollins Publishers
All rights reserved.
Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Craft.
Read more
