coddle

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“
But he couldn't afford to let Austin think that he was a molly-coddle, a mere babe hanging to her skirts.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. transitive verb To cook in water just below the boiling point: coddle eggs.
  2. transitive verb To treat indulgently; baby. See Synonyms at pamper.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • They understood she liked to coddle, too, and put up with the show of motherly concern without even a hint of a reminder that they were both fully grown men now. —  Garwood, Julie - Castles
  • Well, I don't coddle or fear little men like you (or vicious animal liars like this Beth Levin creature - Beth, was "lair" a nice fair journalistic integrity neutral word?). —  Dealbreaker
  • Some folks believe we should coddle, pacify, and speak gently to the lower tier. —  Afronerd: putting the Black Bourgeoisie back on top(of the Ghetto Masses)
  • The film doesn't coddle or pity its subjects, nor does it mock them, despite plenty of opportunities for unintentional humor. —  GreenCine Daily
  • He'll either learn to coddle, caress, and cajole congress, or he'll fail. —  amcgltd
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

coddle:   coddling ·  coddled
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Possibly alteration of caudle.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Also codle, English dial. quoddle; not recorded in Middle English; prob. from ·Icelandic kvotla, dabble, = German dial. quatteln, wabble: apparently a word of popular origin, orig. imitative of the gurgling sound of agitated water. Erroneously referred (by Skinner, Bailey, etc.) to Middle Latin or New Latin *coctulare, *coctillare, boil gently, diminutive of Latin coquere, past participle coctus, boil, cook: see cook, v. The supposed connection with codling, an unripe apple, is doubtful: see codling, n., 2. The sense of coddle may have been partly influenced by caudle, a hot drink.
  2. Also codle, prob. the same as English dial. caddle, caress, fondle, coax: as noun, one superfluously careful about himself (a coddle); cf. Old French cadeler, cocker, pamper, cherish, make much of; cadel, a castling, a starveling, one that needs cockering; apparently ult. from Latin cadere, fall. Connection with cade uncertain. This verb, added by Todd (1818) to Johnson, is usually, but erroneously, merged with coddle, stew, whence by assumption the senses ‘warm,’ ‘cherish,’ ‘pamper.’
  3. English dial. caddle: see the verb. Cf. mollycoddle.
 

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/ˈkɑdl/
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