coddle
verb /ˈkɒdl/
/ˈkɑːdl/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they coddle | /ˈkɒdl/ /ˈkɑːdl/ |
| he / she / it coddles | /ˈkɒdlz/ /ˈkɑːdlz/ |
| past simple coddled | /ˈkɒdld/ /ˈkɑːdld/ |
| past participle coddled | /ˈkɒdld/ /ˈkɑːdld/ |
| -ing form coddling | /ˈkɒdlɪŋ/ /ˈkɑːdlɪŋ/ |
- coddle somebody (often disapproving) to treat somebody with too much care and attention
- She coddles him like a child.
- coddle something to cook eggs in water slightly below boiling point
Word Originlate 16th cent. (in the sense ‘boil (fruit) gently)’: origin uncertain; sense (1) is probably a dialect variant of obsolete caudle ‘administer invalids' gruel’, based on Latin caldum ‘hot drink’, from calidus ‘warm’.