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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

rob the cradle en · VERB

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. (disapproving, idiomatic) To marry or become romantically involved with a much younger person, especially one from a younger generation.
    • The actress, 31, also pooh-poohs the notion that she's robbing the cradle with Timberlake, 22. 2004 January 8, Karen Thomas, “Cameron won't pull a Britney”, in USA Today:
  2. (disapproving, idiomatic) To use a young person for a purpose inappropriate to their age.
    • They were ordered to the field, and their places filled by the Georgia "Reserves," an organization of boys under, and men over the military age. As General Grant aptly-phrased it, "They had robbed the cradle and the grave," in forming these regiments. 1879, John McElroy, chapter 29, in Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
robs the cradle Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
robbed the cradle Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
robbed the cradle Tense=Past lexicographic
robbing the cradle Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic