babying 1 of 2

noun

as in coddling

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

babying

2 of 2

verb

present participle of baby
as in spoiling
to treat with great or excessive care he babied his car, faithfully washing it every week if you baby him he'll never learn to take care of himself

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of babying
Noun
The novel is in many ways a string of dazzlingly deadpan and sharp observations about navigating the strange world of now, from predictive advertising to sugar babying to dead college friends. — Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture, 4 Nov. 2025
Verb
No one’s babying him (at Houston). — David Aldridge, New York Times, 21 June 2026 Conceivably one or two of them should have already been at Citi Field, but until finally summoning McLean to pitch Saturday, Stearns has been babying them in the minors. — Bill Madden, New York Daily News, 16 Aug. 2025 However, some have criticized employer techniques for tracking in-office attendance as babying employees and demonstrating an unwarranted lack of trust. — Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 8 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for babying
  1. coddling
  2. spoiling
  3. pampering
  4. nursing
  5. indulging
Noun
  • But it's been hard as a journalist to watch the wall-to-wall coddling of one of the most controversial figures of the past decade.
    — Matt Calkins OutKick, FOXNews.com, 22 Sep. 2026
  • The staff here are available to attend to any needs but step back to give you space and privacy—so don’t expect always-on coddling.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 17 Sep. 2026
Definition of coddling
Verb
  • But there were also drawbacks, mainly a fear of accidentally spoiling certain events that occur in season six.
    — Lisa de los Reyes, HollywoodReporter, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Without spoiling the big second-act reveal, no one in this play – or in the audience – has an unchallengeable claim on the truth.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of spoiling
Noun
  • Ho-seok has yet to be interviewed for the documentary, and Ye-ji, who treats her subjects as friends, hopes that a weekend of pampering will entice him to coöperate.
    — E. Tammy Kim, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
  • The idea of motorsport circuits as pampering, family-friendly environments has long been anathema to their nature.
    — Robb Report, Robb Report, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of pampering
Verb
  • The Saints could be without star quarterback Brailon Davis who’s nursing an injury, but backup Bodie Brown has stepped in and completed 32 of 45 for 454 yards and seven touchdowns in the past two games.
    — Darren Lauber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Orlando has spent decades nursing an enormous inferiority complex to the bigger, older, richer, and more historically relevant cities in Florida, the Southeast, and the East Coast.
    — Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of nursing
Verb
  • Adults aren’t always used to indulging this kind of curiosity.
    — Angela Haupt, Time, 20 Oct. 2026
  • His current employer is Damien Cantor, an authentically sleazy and slippery character who operates under no discernible code beyond indulging a dumb, preening narcissism.
    — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of indulging

Browse Nearby Words

babyhoods
babying
babyish
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Babying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/babying. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of grotesque

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All