different between mollycoddle vs coddle

English

Etymology

molly +? coddle

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?m?l.??k?d.?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?l.i?k?d.?l/
• Rhymes: -?d?l

Noun

mollycoddle (plural mollycoddles)

1. (now rare) A person, especially a man or a boy, who is pampered and overprotected.
   • 2004: Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage

     No matter what pacifist "flubdubs and flapdoodle mollycoddles" might say, the President [Teddy Roosevelt] knew that if there were a general war then America could well be drawn into it.

Translations

Verb

mollycoddle (third-person singular simple present mollycoddles, present participle mollycoddling, simple past and past participle mollycoddled)

1. (transitive) To be overprotective and indulgent toward; to pamper.
   • 1904, Sabine Baring-Gould, The White Flag

     Heerendorp by this means obtained an evil notoriety, and it was ordered to be burnt, and the women of Jacob's family to be transferred to a concentration camp where they would be mollycoddled at the expense of the English taxpayer.

   • 2012, The Economist, Oct 13th 2012, Policy prescriptions: A True Progressivism

     Rich countries also need more competition in traditionally mollycoddled sectors such as education.

Translations

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?d?l/
• Rhymes: -?d?l

Verb

coddle (third-person singular simple present coddles, present participle coddling, simple past and past participle coddled)

1. (transitive) To treat gently or with great care.
   • 1855, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes, chapter 10 “Ethel and her Relations” (ebook):

     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?

2. (transitive) To cook slowly in hot water that is below the boiling point.
   • 1697, William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World, volume 1, page 222 of 1699 edition:

     It [the guava fruit] bakes as well as a Pear, and it may be coddled, and it makes good Pies.

3. (transitive) To exercise excessive or damaging authority in an attempt to protect. To overprotect.

Synonyms

• (treat gently): cosset, pamper, posset, spoil; see also Thesaurus:pamper
• (cook slowly): simmer

Derived terms

• coddled egg
• mollycoddle

Related terms

• scald

Translations

Noun

coddle (plural coddles)

1. An Irish dish comprising layers of roughly sliced pork sausages and bacon rashers with sliced potatoes and onions.
2. (archaic) An effeminate person.

Anagrams

• codled