Word.ws English Dictionary

overcoddle

overcoddle verb: to coddle too much; to treat with too much care.

Verb

overcoddle (third-person singular simple present overcoddles, present participle overcoddling, simple past and past participle overcoddled)

  1. (transitive) To coddle too much; to treat with too much care.
    • If we're anxious adults, it's probably not because we were overcoddled as toddlers, but that a particular gene on chromosome 17 — one that regulates serotonin transmission — is quite different from the one found in folks who are preternaturally laid-back.2007, Bruce Grierson, U-Turn

Forms of overcoddle

third-person singular presentovercoddles
present participleovercoddling
past participleovercoddled
pastovercoddled

Origin of overcoddle

From over- + coddle.

Questions about overcoddle

What does overcoddle mean?
Overcoddle means to coddle too much; to treat with too much care.
What part of speech is overcoddle?
Overcoddle is a verb.
What is the past tense of overcoddle?
The past tense of overcoddle is overcoddled.

Words near overcoddle in the dictionary

  1. overcoated
  2. overcoating
  3. overcoatings
  4. overcoatless
  5. overcoats
  6. overcoddle
  7. overcoddled
  8. overcoddles
  9. overcoddling
  10. overcode
  11. overcoded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overcoddle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “overcoddle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overcoddle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.