Craft (krft), n.
Etymology: [AS. cr 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 priets and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. Mark xiv. 1.
2 more senses
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.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Craft, v.t.
To play tricks; to practice artifice. [Obs.] You have crafted fair. Shak.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for craft; he lists it under artifice, business, deception.
Where he writes about it:
A craft is some occupation requiring technical skill or manual dexterity, or the persons, collectively, engaged in its exercise; as, the weaver's craft. — from business
Craft and cunning have not necessarily any moral quality; they are common traits of animals, but stand rather low in the human scale. — from deception