coddle
Americanverb (used with object)
-
coddles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
coddled,
past participle, past
-
coddling
present participle
verb
-
to treat with indulgence
-
to cook (something, esp eggs) in water just below the boiling point
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
coddlesimple
-
coddlessimple
-
have coddledperfect
-
has coddledperfect
-
am coddlingprogressive
-
are coddlingprogressive
-
is coddlingprogressive
-
have been coddlingperfect progressive
-
has been coddlingperfect progressive
Past
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coddledsimple
-
had coddledperfect
-
was coddlingprogressive
-
were coddlingprogressive
-
had been coddlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of coddle
1590–1600; variant of caudle, v. use of caudle
Explanation
While it is okay for parents to coddle, spoil, or pamper a young child, it’s a little unnerving when parents coddle, or pamper adult children. And downright weird when adult children wear Pampers. Coddle is an old word. Originally, it meant to cook gently in water that is near boiling, as in coddling an egg. It most likely gained its association with pampering and taking care of someone via a drink made for invalids that was prepared by coddling. “Mollycoddle,” a synonym for coddle, originally meant a person who coddles himself, or an effeminate man.
Vocabulary lists containing coddle
Ender's Game
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Warriors Don't Cry
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Restart
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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:
Does Prada want to coddle you in an unravelling world?
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
A good fit for: Cooks who don’t want to coddle their pans and don’t mind a little oil.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
But when things are rough, we don’t have to coddle each other.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2025
In a post on X, he added: "My job is to advance America's national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism."
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2025
“That’s exactly the kind of thing I mean! Sit down. He won’t get well any faster if you coddle him.”
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
A ballroom dancer who coddles his pet rats—Fred and Ginger—Declan rides a moped that his colleague, Sara Xiu, describes as “that pitiful hair-dryer on wheels.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
This boundary is crossed when your brother coddles his child while punishing yours.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2021
In an interview with USA Today, Montana spoke on the lack of mental preparation that QB’s are entering the League with — suggesting contemporary college football’s coaching as a system that coddles its play-callers.
From Fox News ● Oct. 8, 2021
I’ve asked him to talk to Alexis about it, but he says she’s just an anxious helicopter mom who coddles Casey, but they’ll both eventually move on from this phase and it’ll be fine.
From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2021
“Shall we have a look at that horse then? I doubt it’s anything serious. Marlena coddles them terribly. Oh, here’s the little lady now. Come here, darling,” he calls brightly.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
“The idea that our kids are somehow more coddled is simply not true,” Peterson said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Better equipped to mother Boy No. 2 or stricken with learned helplessness from being coddled by an expert on my phone day in and day out?
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
But it’s worth singling out Eva Jade Halford for her comedic and unsettling turn as the episode's main guest star, playing a coddled devil child.
From Salon ● May 8, 2025
But the culture has been kind of coddled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2025
Sometimes they use the same tea leaves over and over and Mam says the tea is stewed, coddled and boiled.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Yet while the justices care not a fig for coddling the president, they do have a deep interest in the reputation of their own institution.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026
Indeed, Secretary Warfighter’s need for constant coddling is being ever more severely exposed as this scandal unfolds.
From Salon ● Dec. 3, 2025
Next season, while the Lakers are on vacation, are we going to see Austin Reaves in the playoffs wearing another team’s uniform because the Lakers traded him while coddling an aged star?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2025
The notion of creating a safe space for an audience to experience a work of theater tends to provoke the tough-guy purists, because it sounds like coddling.
From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2024
His transfer of powers of self-determination to inmates provoked loud and repeated charges of coddling.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
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.
