coddle

C2+ Topic:Food & Drink

US /ˈkɑdəl/ UK /ˈkɒdəl/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

verb
to treat with excessive care, or to cook gently in water

You shouldn't coddle the boy; let him face setbacks.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to treat with excessive... pamper indulge cosset mollycoddle spoil baby cocker poach

Opposites

neglect mistreat

Word family

Derived forms coddledcoddlingcoddler

Etymology

Of uncertain origin; perhaps a variant of caudle 'to give warm gruel to an invalid', from Old French caudel, from Latin caldum 'warm drink', from calidus 'warm'. The cooking sense 'to stew gently' is the older.

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Food & Drink

External links

# coddle

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈkɑdəl/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈkɒdəl/

## Meanings
1. to treat with excessive care, or to cook gently in water

## Examples
- You shouldn't coddle the boy; let him face setbacks.

## Synonyms
- pamper
- indulge
- cosset
- mollycoddle
- spoil
- baby
- cocker
- poach

## Antonyms
- neglect
- mistreat

## Derived Forms
- coddled
- coddling
- coddler

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: calidus

## Etymology
Of uncertain origin; perhaps a variant of caudle 'to give warm gruel to an invalid', from Old French caudel, from Latin caldum 'warm drink', from calidus 'warm'. The cooking sense 'to stew gently' is the older.

## AI Etymology
Coddle is of uncertain origin; perhaps a variant of caudle 'to give warm gruel to an invalid', from Old French caudel, from Latin caldum 'warm drink', from calidus 'warm'. The cooking sense 'to stew gently' is the older. The historical trail runs through Latin calidus. The later sense follows a semantic development already present in the word's history. In modern use it means to treat with excessive care, or to cook gently in water. Derived formations include coddled, coddling, coddler.

## Topics
- Food & Drink

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