as in spoiling
to treat with great or excessive care
refused to mollycoddle her malingering son and sent him off to school
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mollycoddling
Verb
-
Fungal diseases arrive, spoiling those flawless leaves and blooms — and our serenity.—
Rita Perwich,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
2 May 2026 -
Sure, he’s driven by vengeance and ruthless in his pursuit, but — without spoiling anything — his motivation is clouded at best, misplaced at worst.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
30 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
This is a hotel with romance and celebration in mind, whether that means marking a once-in-a-lifetime occasion or indulging a lifelong love of history, art, and design.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
28 Apr. 2026
-
Their relationship is fascinating, and Guardiola often appears at the end of his tether, but the manager finally recognises that Cherki’s creative talents are worth indulging.—
Sam Lee,
New York Times,
23 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
He was ultimately ruled out after going through pregame warmups before the Lakers’ Game 3 overtime victory against the Houston Rockets and again before their Game 4 loss on Sunday night, downgraded from questionable, still nursing his left oblique strain.—
Benjamin Royer,
Oc Register,
30 Apr. 2026
-
Channing Tatum is apparently nursing his heart with poetry and astrology amid news his ex-fiancée Zoë Kravitz is engaged.—
Jessica Schladebeck,
New York Daily News,
28 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Accordingly, accusations of coddling Communists threatened that relationship.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
6 Mar. 2026
-
Leisure bred laziness; coddling meant spoiling.—
Alexandra Schwartz,
New Yorker,
9 Feb. 2026
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
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.
Cite this Entry
“Mollycoddling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mollycoddling. Accessed 4 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
