mollycoddle

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to treat with excessive indulgence or overprotectiveness

   His parents mollycoddled him so much that he never learned to cope alone.

A 19th-century compound of Molly (a pet form of Mary, used to mean an effeminate man) + coddle ('to treat tenderly'); coddle is of uncertain origin, perhaps related to caudle ('a warm drink for invalids').

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