wrap in cotton wool
English
editVerb
editwrap in cotton wool (third-person singular simple present wraps in cotton wool, present participle wrapping in cotton wool, simple past and past participle wrapped in cotton wool)
- (idiomatic) To treat delicately, to baby, to coddle.
- 2015 October 1, Kate Hardy, Falling for Mr. December, Harlequin, →ISBN:
- 'A word to the wise—don't wrap him in cotton wool, because he'll resent it later.
- 2014 December 21, A K Michaels, Supernatural Enforcement Bureau, Bureau Under Siege: Book 3, A K Michaels:
- But you can't wrap me in cotton wool.
- 2022 February 3, George Lewis, DON'T PANIC!: All the Stuff the Expectant Dad Needs to Know, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
- All the Stuff the Expectant Dad Needs to Know George Lewis ... Because it must be hard,' that I even allowed myself to admit to myself that, yes, it was quite hard. ... But she didn't wrap him up in cotton wool and always tried to […]
- 2024 January 24, Dyan Perry talks to Nick Brodrick, “The industry has given me so much”, in RAIL, number 1001, page 42:
- " […] He told me what to expect, he didn't wrap me in cotton wool, and was always a great guide who treated me the same as everybody else, which is really what I needed. He didn't treat me any differently from the male managers in his team. I got a bollocking the same way everyone else did!"
See also
editFurther reading
edit- “wrap in cotton wool”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.