spoon-feed

spoon-feed
spoon-feeds, spoon-feeding, spoon-fed
1) VERB: usu passive (disapproval) If you think that someone is being given too much help with something and is not making enough effort themselves, you can say they are being spoon-fed.

[be V-ed] Students are unwilling to really work. They want to be spoon-fed...

[be V-ed] They've been spoon-fed, provided with a house, servants, bank balance.

2) VERB: usu passive (disapproval) If you say that someone is spoon-fed ideas or information, you mean that they are told about them and are expected to accept them without questioning them.

[be V-ed n] They were less willing to be spoon-fed doctrines from Japan...

[be V-ed n] The children who were spoon-fed consumerism have discovered that the years of excess are over.

3) VERB If you spoon-feed a small child or a sick person, you feed them using a spoon.

[V n] It took two years for me to get better, during which time he spoon-fed me and did absolutely everything around the house.


English dictionary. 2008.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • spoon-feed — past tense and past participle spoon fed v [T] 1.) to give too much information and help to someone used to show disapproval ▪ I don t believe in spoon feeding students. 2.) to feed someone, especially a baby, with a spoon …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • spoon-feed — [spo͞on′fēd′] vt. spoon fed, spoon feeding 1. to feed with a spoon 2. to pamper; coddle 3. to treat, instruct, or inform in a manner that destroys initiative or curbs independent thought and action …   English World dictionary

  • spoon-feed — spoon′ feed v. t. fed, feed•ing 1) to feed with a spoon 2) to provide so fully with information or the like that one is prevented from thinking or acting independently 3) to provide someone with (information or the like) in this way 4) to pamper… …   From formal English to slang

  • spoon-feed — spoon ,feed verb transitive 1. ) to feed someone using a spoon 2. ) to do so much for someone that they do not need to make any effort of their own a ) to provide someone with so many ideas or opinions that they do not need to think for… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • spoon-feed — ► VERB 1) feed (a baby or infirm adult) using a spoon. 2) provide (someone) with so much help or information that they do not need to think for themselves …   English terms dictionary

  • spoon-feed — [v] pamper baby, cater to, coddle, give in, indulge, mollycoddle*, overindulge, spoil, spoil rotten*; concepts 136,295 …   New thesaurus

  • spoon-feed — UK / US verb [transitive] Word forms spoon feed : present tense I/you/we/they spoon feed he/she/it spoon feeds present participle spoon feeding past tense spoon fed past participle spoon fed 1) to feed someone using a spoon 2) a) to do so much… …   English dictionary

  • spoon-feed — {v.} 1. To feed with a spoon. * /Mothers spoon feed their babies./ 2a. To make something too easy for (a person). * /Bill s mother spoon fed him and never let him think for himself./ * /Alice depended on her mother for all decisions because she… …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • spoon-feed — {v.} 1. To feed with a spoon. * /Mothers spoon feed their babies./ 2a. To make something too easy for (a person). * /Bill s mother spoon fed him and never let him think for himself./ * /Alice depended on her mother for all decisions because she… …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • spoon-feed — v 1. To feed with a spoon. Mothers spoon feed their babies. 2a. To make something too easy for (a person). Bill s mother spoon fed him and never let him think for himself. Alice depended on her mother for all decisions because she had been spoon… …   Словарь американских идиом

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