1. treat in an indulgent or overprotective way: "I was coddled and cosseted"
2. cook (an egg) in water below boiling point:"you may have your eggs scrambled, poached, coddled, or boiled"
Word Originlate 16th century (in the sense ‘boil (fruit) gently’): origin uncertain; coddle1 (sense 1) is probably a dialect variant of obsolete caudle ‘administer invalids' gruel’, based on Latin caldum ‘hot drink’, from calidus ‘warm’.