baby 1 of 3

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2
3
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as in complainer
a person who makes frequent complaints usually about little things don't be such a baby—the shot didn't hurt that much

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

baby

2 of 3

verb

baby

3 of 3

adjective

Synonym Chooser

How does the verb baby contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of baby are humor, indulge, mollycoddle, pamper, and spoil. While all these words mean "to show undue favor to a person's desires and feelings," baby suggests excessive care, attention, or solicitude.

babying students by grading too easily

When might humor be a better fit than baby?

The synonyms humor and baby are sometimes interchangeable, but humor stresses a yielding to a person's moods or whims.

humored him by letting him tell the story

When can indulge be used instead of baby?

The words indulge and baby can be used in similar contexts, but indulge implies excessive compliance and weakness in gratifying another's or one's own desires.

indulged myself with food at the slightest excuse

Where would mollycoddle be a reasonable alternative to baby?

The words mollycoddle and baby are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, mollycoddle suggests an excessive degree of care and attention to another's health or welfare.

refused to mollycoddle her malingering son

In what contexts can pamper take the place of baby?

In some situations, the words pamper and baby are roughly equivalent. However, pamper implies inordinate gratification of desire for luxury and comfort with consequent enervating effect.

pampered by the amenities of modern living

When would spoil be a good substitute for baby?

The meanings of spoil and baby largely overlap; however, spoil stresses the injurious effects on character by indulging or pampering.

foolish parents spoil their children

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of baby
Noun
The cash payments have also led to higher birth weights and longer breastfeeding periods for babies, the Bridge Project says, both of which signal healthier starts to a child's life. Jordan Smith, IndyStar, 5 Nov. 2025 As Drag Race viewers know, Plasma is a Broadway baby through and through, a Gay White Way devotee whose humor and style draws on legends like Barbra Streisand and Bernadette Peters. Joe Lynch, Billboard, 5 Nov. 2025
Verb
Conceivably one or two of them should have already been at Citi Field, but until finally summoning McLean to pitch Saturday, Stearns has been babying them in the minors. Bill Madden, New York Daily News, 16 Aug. 2025 However, some have criticized employer techniques for tracking in-office attendance as babying employees and demonstrating an unwarranted lack of trust. Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 8 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for baby
Recent Examples of Synonyms for baby
Noun
  • Under the public trees, children ran exultantly between cars.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Villages have been burned, civilians executed, and children targeted.
    Kim Aris, Time, 7 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • For every additional person $109 would be added.
    Daniel McFadin, Arkansas Online, 6 Nov. 2025
  • As a childless person who doesn’t teach I’ve been happily unaware that, due to standardized testing requirements that favor close reads of excerpts over whole books, there’s an entire generation of students who have very little contextual framework for the literature they’re being taught in school.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • Starbucks’ success was forged on the back of a growing demand for Western luxuries, as well as a strategy of adapting p roducts for the market –– to appeal to customers beyond China’s top-tier cities.
    John Liu, CNN Money, 5 Nov. 2025
  • And so getting another player who can get pressure on the quarterback in key situations, those guys are always going to be paramount to our success.
    Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 5 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • The faculty experience has been that administrations often side with the complainers.
    Louis Menand, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Recognize Quieter Customers Celebrate the non-complainers.
    Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 11 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • For Sofia Coppola’s remake of the 1971 Don Siegel drama, Farrell took on a role originally played by Clint Eastwood, as the wounded Union soldier who is sheltered and nursed by a group of young women in a seminary in Confederate Virginia.
    Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 30 Oct. 2025
  • Many years have passed since nursing home patients lived in the Redlands Road building, the obscure permit on which the occupancy rested has lapsed.
    Lou Murray, Boston Herald, 29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • In the next few years, however, there will a mini megalopolis rising between North Tryon Street and Old Concord Road.
    Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Think of it as a mini mouth cleanse after dessert.
    Khloe Quill, FOXNews.com, 2 Nov. 2025
Noun
  • The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, offers food benefits, breastfeeding services and nutrition education to 65,000 Arkansas women, infants and children younger than five.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 26 Oct. 2025
  • The infant could be heard making sounds of struggling to breathe as the officers continued CPR.
    Kimberlee Speakman, PEOPLE, 25 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is pressing charges against a man who was caught on camera touching and attempting to kiss her during a public appearance on Tuesday.
    Ellie Cook, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Nov. 2025
  • The Little Rock man who, police say, crashed while fleeing from an Arkansas State Police trooper last week now faces first-degree murder counts in the death of two teenage passengers, authorities said Wednesday.
    Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 6 Nov. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Baby.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/baby. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.

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