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
-
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
-
was spoon-feedingprogressive
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were spoon-feedingprogressive
-
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
These are sympathetic and moving sentiments to be sure, but being spoon-fed these messages isn’t all that interesting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2023
One of them, Shamim Salim, 26, was being spoon-fed soup by a well-wisher.
From Reuters ● Apr. 26, 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
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
“Apple Cider Vinegar” avoids spoon-feeding a tidy version of events to the audience, instead using a scrambled timeline and shifting narrative perspectives to complicate the narrative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025
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
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.
