Synonym Chooser

How does the verb mollycoddle contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of mollycoddle are baby, humor, indulge, pamper, and spoil. While all these words mean "to show undue favor to a person's desires and feelings," 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 baby take the place of mollycoddle?

The synonyms baby and mollycoddle are sometimes interchangeable, but baby suggests excessive care, attention, or solicitude.

babying students by grading too easily

When would humor be a good substitute for mollycoddle?

While in some cases nearly identical to mollycoddle, humor stresses a yielding to a person's moods or whims.

humored him by letting him tell the story

When might indulge be a better fit than mollycoddle?

In some situations, the words indulge and mollycoddle are roughly equivalent. However, indulge implies excessive compliance and weakness in gratifying another's or one's own desires.

indulged myself with food at the slightest excuse

When can pamper be used instead of mollycoddle?

Although the words pamper and mollycoddle have much in common, pamper implies inordinate gratification of desire for luxury and comfort with consequent enervating effect.

pampered by the amenities of modern living

Where would spoil be a reasonable alternative to mollycoddle?

The meanings of spoil and mollycoddle 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 mollycoddle You’re not mollycoddled during the week and are expected to act as any professional crew member would. Helen Iatrou, Robb Report, 14 Sep. 2023 So football generally, and pro football specifically, helped reassure the country that American men were not mollycoddled softies. James Surowiecki, New York Times, 19 Dec. 2019 Koenig may have supported Bernie Sanders in 2016, but Sanders’s mollycoddling platform never approaches the real-life perplexities that Koenig — a pop poet — sings about. Armond White, National Review, 10 Dec. 2019 Her poise is the result of a loving yet punctilious upbringing by parents determined that their fame and its accompanying perks were not going to mollycoddle their two children. Michael Callahan, Town & Country, 1 Aug. 2018 Both sides are mollycoddling their own predicaments with this talk. Chad Pergram, Fox News, 15 Mar. 2018 This mollycoddled outdated practices, like harvesting by hand. The Economist, 14 Dec. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mollycoddle
Verb
  • The Wildcats spoiled the Nittany Lions' homecoming game, outscoring them 9-7 in the fourth quarter to just squeak out the win.
    Ben Verbrugge, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Oct. 2025
  • The North Carolina Courage spoiled Bay FC’s last home game of the season Friday night as Manaka Matsukubo’s hat trick led to a resounding 4-1 win, matching the most lopsided home loss in Bay’s two-year history.
    Jon Becker, Mercury News, 18 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Their sons were 13 months and 1 month old at the time, and Federline asked her not to go home and nurse them.
    Martha Ross, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025
  • These migrants became figures left in a historical stasis, unable to face their present while nursing traumatic loss (their nostalgic literature constitutes an entire genre).
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Campbell has accused the SCORE Act of disadvantaging these groups while coddling the NCAA.
    Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 7 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Outside the woods the whole world babied her.
    Hazlitt, Hazlitt, 8 Oct. 2025
  • 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
  • Your favorite party dip meets stovetop chicken and rice in this creamy, cheesy dish that will please the whole family.
    Elizabeth Nelson, Southern Living, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Gone is the sense that Maggie is desperate to please Alma; so too is Alma’s interest in supporting Maggie.
    Barry Levitt, Time, 17 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Do something to pamper yourself.
    Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 12 Oct. 2025
  • Get pampered at Enchantment Resort Sedona has no shortage of spa and wellness resorts, and one of the most acclaimed of these spots is in Boynton Canyon, one of the city's four major vortexes.
    Paige Moore, AZCentral.com, 11 Oct. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Mollycoddle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mollycoddle. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on mollycoddle

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!