Word.ws English Dictionary

Spock-marked

Spock-marked adjective: spoiled by an overly permissive upbringing.

Adjective

Spock-marked (comparative more Spock-marked, superlative most Spock-marked)

  1. (derogatory) Spoiled by an overly permissive upbringing.
    • Governments might, like those of America and Canada, produce cheap brochures explaining to parents how to bring up honest, unanxious, kindly, non-bed-wetting, co-operative children. And that in rich countries with high literacy levels such advice has its effect can hardly be doubted by anyone who...1970, Raymond Apthorpe, University of Sussex. Institute of Development Studies, People Planning and Development Studies: Some Reflections on Social Planning
    • Yet the fact remains that half-baked and half-digested ideas about the absolute necessity of leaving a child 'free' and 'happy' have produced what has come to be known as the 'Spock-marked child', […]1971, Elizabeth Manners, The Vulnerable Generation, page 58

Forms of Spock-marked

comparativemore Spock-marked
superlativemost Spock-marked

Origin of Spock-marked

Blend of Spock + pockmarked, in reference to the influential approach of Benjamin Spock (1903–1998), American pediatrician.

Questions about Spock-marked

What does Spock-marked mean?
Spock-marked means spoiled by an overly permissive upbringing.
What part of speech is Spock-marked?
Spock-marked is an adjective.

Words near Spock-marked in the dictionary

  1. SPOAN
  2. Spocanian
  3. Spock
  4. Spock ears
  5. Spock Generation
  6. Spock-marked
  7. Spocked
  8. Spockery
  9. Spockian
  10. Spocking
  11. Spockish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Spock-marked (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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