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:
He was not going to spoon-feed that to us.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2023
“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
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 Chambers, William
She spoon-feeds Knight as his condition worsens, and he eventually becomes her loyal friend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
Instead, it spoon-feeds students dry accounts of Chinese law and the Politburo Standing Committee, which are “very abstract for the students,” said the teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 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
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
"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
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
The two-time rushing champion said he got the tattoo over the summer, with the message obvious based on the slogan that grew out of Elliott’s spoon-feeding hand signal at the end of his first-down plays.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 18, 2020
Of course, ideally, we want people to understand the themes without us spoon-feeding them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2020
Med-jacks are spoon-feeding her whatever soups Frypan can cook up, checking her vitals 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.
