Word of the Day

: November 22, 2009

mollycoddle

verb MAH-lee-kah-dul

What It Means

: to treat with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence or attention

mollycoddle in Context

Parents of other players complained that the coach was unfairly mollycoddling the team's star pitcher.

Did You Know?

Coddling eggs is delicate business. You need to cook them slowly and gently, keeping the water just below boiling. Given how carefully you need to treat the eggs, it's not surprising that “coddle,” the name for the cooking process, developed the figurative sense “to pamper.” “Mollycoddle” was formed by combining “coddle” with “molly,” a nickname for Mary. In its earliest known uses in the 1830s, “mollycoddle” was a noun, a synonym of our modern “wimp,” but within 30 years it was being used as the verb you're likely to encounter now.