mollycoddle

plural mollycoddles

1. archaicA person, especially a man or a boy, who is pampered and overprotected.

   "What are you, a Mollycoddle?"

   1910, Lower Coast Gazette (Pointe-a-la-Hache, La.), When Teddy is Given the Franking Privilege

   2 more examples

   You have been bred up as a molly-coddle, Pen, and spoilt by the women.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 32, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   No matter what pacifist "flubdubs and flapdoodle mollycoddles" might say, the President [Teddy Roosevelt] knew that if there were a general war then America could well be drawn into it.

   2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage

present singular third person mollycoddles · participle present mollycoddling · participle past mollycoddled · past mollycoddled

1. transitiveTo be overprotective and indulgent toward; to pamper.

   Rich countries also need more competition in traditionally mollycoddled sectors such as education.

   Oct 13th 2012, “Policy prescriptions: A True Progressivism”, in The Economist

   1 more example

   Heerendorp by this means obtained an evil notoriety, and it was ordered to be burnt, and the women of Jacob's family to be transferred to a concentration camp where they would be mollycoddled at the expense of the English taxpayer.

   1904, Sabine Baring-Gould, The White Flag