[In no Dictionary before Todd 1818. It has been variously conjectured to be the same word as CODDLE v.1, CODDLE v.3 (= cuddle), or to be a variant of CADDLE v., or of CAUDLE v., with the meaning extended to all the treatment of which caudling is a characteristic part. Of these the last would best suit the sense, while the interchange of au and short o is common dialectally.
(Cotgr. has an obs. F. cadeler ‘to cocker, pamper, fedle, cherish, make much of’; but this is unknown elsewhere.)]
trans. To treat as an invalid in need of nourishing food and nursing; to nurse overmuch, cocker. Often with up; cf. nurse up, cocker up. (It differs from pamper, in that it is those who are supposed to be weakly that are coddled.)
1815. Jane Austen, Emma, I. xii. 88. Be satisfied with doctoring and coddling yourself.
1816. Scott, Antiq., ix. Let womankind alone for coddling each other.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, iv. (1861), 91. People … who live to dine, who send for the doctor, who coddle themselves.
1860. Thackeray, Four Georges, iv. (1861), 205. [He] never had a desire but he coddled and pampered it.
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., I. 500. Regret that the State ever undertook to coddle the church.
1889. Boy’s Own Paper, 17 Aug., 730/1. I don’t want to be coddled up and made a fool of.
Hence Coddled ppl. a., Coddling vbl. sb.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 13. Nothing worse for children than coddling.
1884. Cassell’s Fam. Mag., March, 219/2. A deal of difference betwixt ordinary care of health and coddling.
1886. Athenæum, 18 Dec., 823/2. A spoilt and coddled little lad.
Coddle v.3, dial. form of CUDDLE, to fondle, caress, coax.
