spoon-feed
Americanverb (used with object)
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
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spoon-fedsimple
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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:
“One day, Demi came in with this idea like, ‘I can’t spoon-feed you anymore.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2022
"I wanted someone to spoon-feed me information in a format that was easy."
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2021
Her Little Sisters of the Sick Poor are prime examples, as the name suggests: They spoon-feed the toothless, comfort the grieving, scrub floors, clean wounds, change diapers, empty bedpans.
From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2021
By plastering the walls with imagery as grandiose as Westminster Abbey and as mundane as fading green wallpaper, these projections spoon-feed scene setting that should be left to the set design and audiences’ imaginations.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 13, 2020
Better let them go to hell in their own way than attempt to spoon-feed them.
From Ireland as It Is And as It Would be Under Home Rule by Buckley, Robert John
She spoon-feeds Knight as his condition worsens, and he eventually becomes her loyal friend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
"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
By monitoring our listening, the algo tries to figure out what we like, then spoon-feeds us some more.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 9, 2022
But "the fundamental assertion that Meta algorithmically spoon-feeds hateful content because that increases our profits" was wrong, he said.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2021
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
Surely, the viewer can put two and two together on their own to decipher a deeper meaning within the text without the message being spoon-fed to them.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2025
Other images include Susan being spoon-fed by her young granddaughter and her lying on her bed having forgotten how to dress herself.
From BBC ● Jan. 5, 2024
One of them, Shamim Salim, 26, was being spoon-fed soup by a well-wisher.
From Reuters ● Apr. 26, 2023
On air, he spoon-fed them, straight-faced, to his credulous audience.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2023
The blond-haired girl who’d spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
My surgeon made sure to facilitate my physical transition as much as possible, spoon-feeding me talking points for insurance coverage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
In her own novels, NDiaye can’t be accused of spoon-feeding readers.
From New York Times ● Oct. 18, 2023
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
Holman’s three kids — all now hale and hearty — rallied around her, spoon-feeding her soup, changing sweat-soaked sheets and making pharmacy runs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2021
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.
