spoon-feed
spoon-feed (someone)
1. Literally, to insert food into another person's mouth. The nurses had to spoon-feed my mother after her stroke. No, my daughter is off the bottle now—we're spoon-feeding her.
2. By extension, to help someone excessively (usually to the recipient's detriment). Her students are lazy because she always spoon-feeds them the answers. The actress got so flustered in front of the camera that we had to spoon-feed her the lines. How unprofessional!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
spoon-feed someone
Fig. to treat someone with too much care or help; to teach someone with methods that are too easy and do not stimulate the learner to independent thinking. The teacher spoon-feeds the students by dictating notes on the novel instead of getting the children to read the books. You mustn't spoon-feed the new recruits by telling them what to do all the time. They must use their initiative.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
- spoon-feed (someone)
- be spoon-fed
- spoon-fed
- cork up
- corked up
- spoon out
- feed into
- feed into (something)
- spoon up
- flake spoon