coddle

Definition

To treat gently or with great care.

Etymology

Probably from caudle. Compare British dialect caddle (“to coax, spoil, fondle”) and cade.

Example Sentences

• "How many of our English princes have been coddled at home by their fond papas and mammas, walled up in inaccessible castles, with a tutor and a library, guarded by cordons of sentinels, sermoners, old aunts, old women from the world without, and have nevertheless escaped from all these guardians, and astonished the world by their extravagance and their frolics?"
• "a coddled egg"
• "It [the guava fruit] bakes as well as a Pear, and it may be coddled, and it makes good Pies."