spoon-feed
Americanverb (used with object)
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spoon-feeds,
present (3rd person singular)
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spoon-fed,
past participle, past
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spoon-feeding
present participle
verb
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to feed with a spoon
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to overindulge or spoil
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to provide (a person) with ready-made opinions, judgments, etc, depriving him of original thought or action
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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spoon-feedsimple
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spoon-feedssimple
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have spoon-fedperfect
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has spoon-fedperfect
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am spoon-feedingprogressive
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are spoon-feedingprogressive
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is spoon-feedingprogressive
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have been spoon-feedingperfect progressive
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has been spoon-feedingperfect progressive
Past
-
spoon-fedsimple
-
had spoon-fedperfect
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was spoon-feedingprogressive
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were spoon-feedingprogressive
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had been spoon-feedingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of spoon-feed
First recorded in 1605–15
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As usual, Wiseman doesn’t spoon-feed us details of who’s who and where’s where; he trusts us to get our bearings over an effortlessly engrossing four hours.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 29, 2023
He was not going to spoon-feed that to us.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2023
"I wanted someone to spoon-feed me information in a format that was easy."
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2021
Drivers can’t spoon-feed babies in a car seat, but they can hand them a tube of banana puffs and let them feed themselves.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 18, 2019
We must spoon-feed it, and nice nights that will give me!
From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 430 Volume 17, New Series, March 27, 1852 by William Chambers
She spoon-feeds Knight as his condition worsens, and he eventually becomes her loyal friend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
In another scene, his mum, Irene, spoon-feeds him.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2022
Mantel never spoon-feeds us, never makes it particularly easy.
From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2022
"Where the Crawdads Sing" often spoon-feeds viewers everything they need to know with oh so tender voiceovers, dialogue, and images that simply overstate the obvious.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2022
The young woman next to her spoon-feeds the old woman rice gruel.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
"I spoon-fed the police," she explains with exasperation as she shows us print-outs of text messages and voicemails.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2025
At a scoop shop in downtown Manhattan, a large white poodle was spoon-fed what appeared to be vanilla ice cream.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2024
Sometimes, somebody comes on and they’re not an actor and are spoon-fed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2024
Klein confesses that it sometimes felt as if Wolf had fed Klein's ideas into a "bonkers blender" and then spoon-fed the resulting incoherent mishmash directly to Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2023
She spoon-fed Minerva, who was now unresponsive, and rag-washed her face and hands before taking her into the bush to pee and then bundling her back up.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
Warsh argued that by not spoon-feeding markets, the Fed hears from what he called a very accomplished economist—the internals of financial markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
In her own novels, NDiaye can’t be accused of spoon-feeding readers.
From New York Times ● Oct. 18, 2023
Corkins cautions against turning self-feeding and spoon-feeding into dueling camps.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 10, 2022
Meta has faced intense scrutiny in recent months from regulators and advocates who argue the company gets vulnerable users hooked on its products while spoon-feeding them content that hurts their mental health.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 7, 2022
Med-jacks are spoon-feeding her whatever soups Frypan can cook up, checking her vit;als and such.
From "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
