as in to spoil
to treat with great or excessive care
the college president is a past master at dandling wealthy alumni
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Recent Examples of dandle
The tale is pilfered from the Aeneid, but Virgil would blench to see the curtain rise on Jupiter, dandling Ganymede, a beautiful boy, upon his knee.
—
Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
An hour later, Musk took X to New York and dandled him on his knee while being photographed for Time.
—Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 11 Sep. 2023
Vet emailed me a photo of Sly contentedly dandling a grandson in his lap.
—David Kamp, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
The day after the election, Taaz Robinson, a fellow third-year, posted a picture on Buckingham’s Facebook page of Donald Trump as an infant being dandled by Vladimir Putin.
—Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post, 12 Oct. 2017
Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
An hour later, Musk took X to New York and dandled him on his knee while being photographed for Time.
—Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 11 Sep. 2023
Vet emailed me a photo of Sly contentedly dandling a grandson in his lap.
—David Kamp, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
The day after the election, Taaz Robinson, a fellow third-year, posted a picture on Buckingham’s Facebook page of Donald Trump as an infant being dandled by Vladimir Putin.
—Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post, 12 Oct. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dandle
Verb
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Torre spoiled Yankees fans with those four World Series titles in his first five years as manager.—
Ian O'Connor,
New York Times,
10 Oct. 2025
-
The first ballot will be spoiled.—
Niraj Warikoo,
Freep.com,
10 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Murray continues to nurse a foot injury suffered in the team's Week 5 loss to the Tennessee Titans, which has resulted in him being held out of practice for most of the week.—
Reice Shipley,
MSNBC Newsweek,
10 Oct. 2025
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The 6-foot-4, 290-pound defensive lineman, who nursed a high-ankle sprain throughout August and September, returned to the lineup late in the first quarter of the Week 5 win against Miami.—
Mike Kaye
October 9,
Charlotte Observer,
9 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Outside the woods the whole world babied her.—
Hazlitt,
Hazlitt,
8 Oct. 2025
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Jean’s mama reproached her for not having been more careful and babied Wole, ordering him to remove his T-shirt and retrieving an aloe lotion, telling him to stretch out on the couch and instructing Jean to spread it over the tender areas.—
David Wright Faladé,
New Yorker,
28 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
The other people Ye tries to big-foot into indulging his perverse Peter Pan complex fare more poorly.—
Derek Robertson,
The Washington Examiner,
10 Oct. 2025
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Whether that’s indulging Wes Anderson’s imagination (as a three-time member of his ever-growing ensemble) or producing her own projects, Johansson always manages to surprise.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
9 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Really, the album is about tiring of mothering men who are great in bed but lack crucial social skills.—
Craig Jenkins,
Vulture,
3 Sep. 2025
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She was born on July 10, 2024, to mother Jona, 26 and father Tony, 25, with two other siblings Pork Stew and Sweet Pork at the zoo in Chonburi, NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, reported.—
Julia Gomez,
USA Today,
11 July 2025
Verb
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The wrecking-ball style is the way King played even at Longview (Texas) High, where his father was the coach, and didn’t coddle or protect his son, as Dickey remembers.—
Seth Emerson,
New York Times,
8 Oct. 2025
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Campbell has accused the SCORE Act of disadvantaging these groups while coddling the NCAA.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
7 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Hundreds of them were on hand this week to primp and pamper more than 2,500 cows competing at what is widely considered to be the Westminster Dog Show of the cattle world.—
Hope Karnopp,
jsonline.com,
3 Oct. 2025
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Hydration is key to more youthful-looking skin, and taking a little bit of time out of your evening to pamper yourself with a hydrating cream can do wonders the next morning.—
Gabriela Izquierdo,
Southern Living,
27 Sep. 2025
Verb
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While most art cars since the fifth installment had been cosseted, this one was present at the starting line for the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans.—
Trinity Francis,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
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The downstairs dining room is intimate, cosseting and plush; upstairs is more relaxed and idiosyncratically chic.—
Ligaya Mishan,
New York Times,
22 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dandle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dandle. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.
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