wrap in cotton wool

English

Verb

wrap 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)

1. (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!"

Further reading

• “wrap in cotton wool”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.