Word of the Day : April 26, 2018

mollycoddle \MAH-lee-kah-dul\ verb

Definition

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

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 1840s, mollycoddle was a noun, a synonym of our modern wimp, but in short time, it was being used as the verb you're likely to encounter now.

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Aired April 26, 2018

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