transitive verb

• 1Feed (someone) by using a spoon.

  ‘he is spoon-feeding the chimpanzee as one might feed a baby’

  More example sentences

  • ‘When I visit Ally at lunchtime, does she drag me into a dark corner and cower with me while I spoon-feed her yogurt and offer her a baby bottle?’
  • ‘We ate quietly and quickly, Stella spoon-feeding Jay who only protested lightly, causing me to roll my eyes at him.’
  • ‘He proceeded to spoon-feed Glen the bowl of soup.’
  • ‘Slowly, in the fading light, I take the bowl into my lap, and carefully begin to spoon-feed myself the broth.’
  • ‘She patiently spoon-feeds me a bowl of soup while my daughter Teal reads me her report about African elephants: ‘Did you know that elephants poop 80 pounds a day?’’
  • ‘His nurse must chop up his food and spoon-feed him.’
  • ‘‘Well, for one thing, he's a big boy and I can stop spoon-feeding him now,’ Jerik replied brightly.’
  • ‘The other week, I made them honorary members of his nursing staff, because he always manages to eat that little bit more than usual when the twins play Mummy with him and spoon-feed him soups or porridge.’
  • ‘Dante would usually take over and spoon-feed me, making my situation all the more degrading.’
  • ‘I just said that she should eat more, not that I was going to write up a dietary plan and spoon-feed her.’
  • ‘He has been robbed even of the ability to chew, so a nurse must spoon-feed him every meal.’
  • ‘He eyed the mothers spoon-feeding their babies, smiling widely.’

  Synonyms

  pamper, spoil, overindulge, coddle, mollycoddle, cosset, nanny, nursemaid, mother, baby, pet, spoon-feed, overparent

  1. 1.1Provide (someone) with so much help or information that they do not need to think for themselves.
     ‘certain students enjoy finding out things for themselves; others prefer being spoon-fed’
     More example sentences

     • ‘I am not here to spoon-feed you and nor are you the kind of people who should be spoon-fed.’
     • ‘But the show clumsily spoon-feeds us its insights.’
     • ‘But this week it means intelligent, not letting anyone or anything spoon-feed you.’
     • ‘We don't spoon-feed the audience and tell them what to think.’
     • ‘It challenges you with provocative ideas, and doesn't spoon-feed you.’
     • ‘Those qualities don't interest me much in music or any artform, nor do the types of performances which spoon-feed the audience.’
     • ‘It's time to start trusting students to make their own informed decisions, as opposed to spoon-feeding them.’
     • ‘He does not spoon-feed or coddle his audience; he does not always explain all the minute particulars of every event he discusses.’
     • ‘He said: ‘Nobody is going to come out and spoon-feed the town council.’’
     • ‘And then you have to spoon-feed journalists so that you'll have it, it's easy, you don't have to make 12 phone calls.’
     • ‘The US media has simply allowed him to spoon-feed them.’
     • ‘Much of the country seems to be engrossed in the process as the media spoon-feeds them breaking news sound-bites.’
     • ‘Can you imagine being a manager and not having to think for everybody all the time, spoon-feed them and having to scrutinize every single document before it leaves your department, simply because you cannot depend on your subordinates?’
     • ‘As for Reid, his signature move is simple: spoon-feed journalists one day, then scream at them the next if the story's not spun to his heart's desire.’
     • ‘It is high time for us to spoon-feed them - teach them the process of transformation, how it works.’
     • ‘Let them find their own way out of their befuddlement: There is no need to spoon-feed them.’
     • ‘The ensuing film is a rich character study that forces viewers to think for themselves, rather than being spoon-fed by the director.’
     • ‘Here, we are talking about recognizing significant ‘clues’ in a musical score and not having to be spoon-fed and guided time after time.’