Also 7 coddel, quoddle. Pa. pple. 7 quodled, 7–8 codled. [Found first in end of 16th c.; origin uncertain.
The form and sense would be satisfied by a NFr. *caudeler = Fr. *chaudeler, f. caudel, chaudel, late L. cal(i)dellum (see CAUDLE), in sense of ‘to warm, heat gently’; but nothing is known of such forms, though a sb. caudelée is used in Normandy. As to possible connection with CODLING sb.2, see that word.]
1. trans. To boil gently, parboil, stew (esp. fruit: in quot. 1611, it is, of course, suggested by ‘Pippin’).
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., I. ii. Taking in all the yong wenches that passe by … and codd’ling euery kernell of fruit for ’hem.
a. 1611. Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, V. iv. Dear Prince Pippin, Down with your noble blood: or as I live I’ll have you coddled.
a. 1655. Sir T. Mayerne, Receipts in Cookery, No. 150. 101. Take your Pippins green, and quoddle them in faire water.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1802), VII. xxvii. 58. We’ll go … said my father, whilst dinner is coddling.
1769. Johnson, in Boswell, 26 Oct. Sir, you are not to imagine the water is to be very hot. I would not coddle the child.
1808. Mrs. Rundell, Cookery (1838), 149. Coddle six pippins in vine leaves covered with water.
1854. Thoreau, Walden, xiii. (1886), 237. I collected a small store of wild apples for coddling.
1875. Parish, Sussex Gloss., Coddle, to parboil. Apples so cooked are called coddled-apples.
fig. a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 162. Hee is tane from Grammar-schoole halfe codled.
a. 1634. Randolph, Poems, Pedlar (1652), 37. If your coxcomes [= heads] you would Quoddle, Here buy Braines to fill your noddle.
1642. Howell, For. Trav. (Arb.), 80. Green wits not yet halfe coddled as it were.
2. In some mod. dialects: To roast (apples, peas, etc.) in the oven: see quots.
1876. C. C. Robinson, Mid. Yorksh. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Coddle, to roast fruit, &c., as apples, and shelled beans. When the latter crack, they are coddled.
1877. Holderness Gloss., Coddle, to cook certain kinds of food in the oven in place of boiling.
1888. Addy, Sheffield Gloss., s.v. Coddle, When apples are roasted in the oven they are said to be coddled.
Hence Coddled († codled, quodled) ppl. a.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 76. Dapple your speeches, with new quodled words.
1651. Cleveland, Poems, 11. Ajax with his anger quodl’d brain.
a. 1668. Davenant, Distresses, Wks. (1673), 41/2. Now am I melting, soft All over, as a quodled Apple.
1688. C. Trenchfield, Cap of Grey Hairs, xxvi. 169. The mischief on’t too, is, to see the Codled Fool take upon him in that tune.
1818. Gentl. Mag., LXXXVIII. I. 160/2. Place the flowers in scalding water … then cut off the coddled end of the stems.
1888. Addy, Sheffield Gloss., Coddled peas, are peas cooked like chestnuts. They are put into a tin and stewed in a hot oven.
