Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cook in water just below the boiling point: coddle eggs.
- v. To treat indulgently; baby. See Synonyms at pamper.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To boil gently; seethe; stew, as fruit.
- To make effeminate by pampering; make much of; treat tenderly as an invalid; humor; pamper.
- n. An over-indulged, pampered being; a person or animal made weak or effeminate by tender treatment.
- In tobacco manufacturing, to injure by fermentation.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To treat gently or with great care.
- v. transitive To cook slowly in hot water that is below the boiling point.
- n. An Irish dish comprising layers of roughly sliced pork sausages and bacon rashers with sliced potatoes and onions.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To parboil, or soften by boiling.
- v. To treat with excessive tenderness; to pamper.
WordNet 3.0
- v. treat with excessive indulgence
- v. cook in nearly boiling water
Etymologies
- Compare British dialect caddle ("to coax, spoil, fondle") and cade. (Wiktionary)
- Possibly alteration of caudle. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Elsewhere, Hastert said the Democratic plan would "coddle" -- oh, how they love to accuse others of coddling -- "the same terrorists who plan to harm innocent Americans and their freedom worldwide.”
“Wanting to see the law respected is not the same as wanting to "coddle" our enemies.”
“One Afghan politician believes that, while Gen. David Petraeus will almost certainly pursue a counterinsurgency strategy similar to his predecessor's, he will be less inclined to "coddle" Karzai on corruption than McChrystal was.”
“Clinton wasn't going to "coddle" Beijing dictators, remember?”
“The CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has said that he now has to "coddle" his employees, and even the U.S. military has encouraged its drillmasters to do less shouting because, according to Under Secretary of Defense David Chu, today's generation of recruits respond better to instructors who play "a more counseling-type role.”
“As Republicans tell it, anyone who votes against legalizing Bush's surveillance and detainee treatment programs is voting to '' coddle '' terrorists.”
OpEdNews - Quicklink: House Set to Vote on Eavesdropping Bill
“Look Sarah, I am sorry if you think it is the right thing to do to "coddle" a person under ...”
“Look Sarah, I am sorry if you think it is the right thing to do to "coddle" a person under the age of 18 by treating them with "kids gloves" in your response to them on here.”
“Chua acknowledges that her argument will offend softy "Western" parents, who prefer to coddle rather than throttle their kids, and who prioritize happiness over achievement.”
“Rather than try and coddle me or assuage my anxieties, in his forceful manner he said, You've got to be kidding me!”
The Huffington Post: Priya Bery: The Ambassador's Toast: Remembering Richard Holbrooke
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘coddle’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
set phasers to...
you name the setting
I've tuned mine to be gentler and kinder
following suit is not mandatory but would be appreciatedcoddle, confuse, flummox, tap, furrow, instigate, invigorate, punnify, logical, must... act... be..., bowdlerise, laughing gas and 435 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
-
Behold, The Potato
All things potato. History, foodways and potato recipe names, cultivar or variety names, farming, production, diseases and pests, folklore.
spud, tater, starchy, tuberous, <i>Solanum tubero..., <i>Phytophthora i..., potato blight, late blight, blight, Ireland, Irish potato, lumper and 331 more...
-
CCle
all those wonderful Britsy words that end with a double consonant followed by 'le'
doddle, bobble, dibble, whiffle, waffle, diddle, piddle, jiggle, straggle, boggle, fiddle, skeedaddle and 125 more...
-
Cod
cod, code, codex, codfish, codling, inshore cod, shoal-water cod, cultus-cod, shelled peasecod, black cod, cod-liver oil, coddle and 80 more...
-
vocab 2
accrue, lenity, pellucid, smitten, implore, scrupulous, recalcitrant, melancholy, trudge, reverie, convivial, corrigible and 19 more...
-
fix
set, anchor, mend, rivet, moor, clinch, emend, circumfix, fixated, cefixime, fixed cost, confix and 87 more...
-
hasty amateur manufacture
fudging it
wangle, fudge, parry, hedge, merganser, coddle, sidestep, duck, dodge, unworkmanlike pra..., botch, bungle and 13 more...
-
the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
-
reginaterra's Words
purl, blow, squish, andean, generality, adaptation, lush, pack, filter, acquiesce, abstraction, sweet and 508 more...
-
GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
-
collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
-
Eazy E
motley, callous, languid, copious, dubious, contemptible, disparage, sporadic, gratuitous, disillusioned, conflagration, concordance and 99 more...
-
Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
-
cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for coddle.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.