wrap in cotton wool

present singular third person wraps in cotton wool · participle present wrapping in cotton wool · participle past wrapped in cotton wool · past wrapped in cotton wool

1. idiomaticTo treat delicately, to baby, to coddle.

   But you can't wrap me in cotton wool.

   2014 December 21, A K Michaels, Supernatural Enforcement Bureau, Bureau Under Siege: Book 3, A K Michaels

   3 more examples

   'A word to the wise—don't wrap him in cotton wool, because he'll resent it later.

   2015 October 1, Kate Hardy, Falling for Mr. December, Harlequin, →ISBN

   All the Stuff the Expectant Dad Needs to Know George Lewis ... Because it must be hard,' that I even allowed myself to admit to myself that, yes, it was quite hard. ... But she didn't wrap him up in cotton wool and always tried to[…]

   2022 February 3, George Lewis, DON'T PANIC!: All the Stuff the Expectant Dad Needs to Know, Hachette UK, →ISBN

   "[…] He told me what to expect, he didn't wrap me in cotton wool, and was always a great guide who treated me the same as everybody else, which is really what I needed. He didn't treat me any differently from the male managers in his team. I got a bollocking the same way everyone else did!"

   2024 January 24, Dyan Perry talks to Nick Brodrick, “The industry has given me so much”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 42