The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 letter word CRADLE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
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More clues leading to the result CRADLE
- Nurse, close to despair in scoundrel's grip, fled unclothed
- Curve round, taking ageto settle back in bed
- Baddie pinning queen by the French bed
- Much older partner’s tips for excavator after rock sample
- The first to decide Clare is off her rocker?
- Stand upright when participating in field archery
- Soporific air of nurses — grand after working
- Nurses can’t cross that lady’s much older partner
- Catch slanderer that's upset older lover
- Lullaby somehow led child to get into rock
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Soporific air" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case soporific air = cradle.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does CRADLE mean?
CRADLE noun- A bed or cot for a baby, oscillating on rockers or swinging on pivots.
- The place of origin, or in which anything is nurtured or protected in the earlier period of existence.
- Infancy, or very early life.
- An implement consisting of a broad scythe for cutting grain, with a set of long fingers parallel to the scythe, designed to receive the grain, and to lay it evenly in a swath.
- A tool used in mezzotint engraving, which, by a rocking motion, raises burrs on the surface of the plate, so preparing the ground.
- A framework of timbers, or iron bars, moving upon ways or rollers, used to support, lift, or carry ships or other vessels, heavy guns, etc., as up an inclined plane, or across a strip of land, or in launching a ship.
- A case for a broken or dislocated limb.
- A frame to keep the bedclothes from contact with the sensitive parts of an injured person.
- A machine on rockers, used in washing out auriferous earth.
- A suspended scaffold used in shafts.
- A ribbing for vaulted ceilings and arches intended to be covered with plaster.
- A basket or apparatus in which, when a line has been made fast to a wrecked ship from the shore, the people are brought off from the wreck.
- A rest for the receiver of a telephone, or for certain computer hardware.
- (contact juggling) A hand position allowing a contact ball to be held steadily on the back of the hand.
- A mechanical device for tilting and decanting a bottle of wine.
- To contain in or as if in a cradle.
- To rock (a baby to sleep).
- To wrap protectively, to hold gently and protectively.
- To lull or quieten, as if by rocking.
- To nurse or train in infancy.
- To rock the lacrosse stick back and forth in order to keep the ball in the head by means of centrifugal force.
- To cut and lay (grain) with a cradle.
- To transport a vessel by means of a cradle.
- To put ribs across the back of (a picture), to prevent the panels from warping.