Probably from caudle. Compare British dialect caddle (“to coax, spoil, fondle”) and cade.
Meanings
(transitive) To treat gently or with great care.
How many of our English princes have been coddled at home by their fond papas and mammas, walled up in inaccessible castles, with a tutor and a library, guarded by cordons of sentinels, sermoners, old aunts, old women from the world without, and have nevertheless escaped from all these guardians, and astonished the world by their extravagance and their frolics? 1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC:
(transitive) To cook slowly in hot water that is below the boiling point.
It [the guava fruit] bakes as well as a Pear, and it may be coddled, and it makes good Pies. 1697, William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 222:
a coddled egg
(transitive) To exercise excessive or damaging authority in an attempt to protect. To overprotect.
fi lelliä (To exercise excessive or damaging authority in an attempt to protect) · gl malcriar (to treat gently or with great care) · hi दुलारना (to treat gently or with great care) · bg угаждам (to treat gently or with great care) · el σιγοβράζω (to cook slowly in hot water) · es malcriar (to treat gently or with great care) · eo dorloti (to treat gently or with great care) · de verwöhnen (to treat gently or with great care) · es escalfar (to cook slowly in hot water) · el καλομαθαίνω (to treat gently or with great care) · fr dorloter (to treat gently or with great care) · nl zachtjes koken (to cook slowly in hot water) · es consentir (to treat gently or with great care) · bg варя на бавен огън (to cook slowly in hot water) · de verhätscheln (to treat gently or with great care) · cs hýčkat (to treat gently or with great care) · fr mijoter (to cook slowly in hot water) · sv pjoska (to treat gently or with great care) · cs mírně povařit (to cook slowly in hot water) · cs rozmazlovat (to treat gently or with great care) · fr couver (To exercise excessive or damaging authority in an attempt to protect) · nl vertroetelen (to treat gently or with great care) · nl verwennen (to treat gently or with great care) · cs lehce povařit (to cook slowly in hot water) · es cocinar a fuego lento (to cook slowly in hot water) · pt amimar (to treat gently or with great care) · el φροντίζω (to treat gently or with great care) · de köcheln (to cook slowly in hot water) · el περιποιούμαι (to treat gently or with great care) · ro răsfăța (To exercise excessive or damaging authority in an attempt to protect) · fr choyer (to treat gently or with great care) · pl rozpieszczać (to treat gently or with great care) · gl mimar (to treat gently or with great care) · es popar (to treat gently or with great care) · es mimar (to treat gently or with great care) · bg къкря (to cook slowly in hot water) · es pochar (to cook slowly in hot water) · fi hoivata (to treat gently or with great care) · bg глезя (to treat gently or with great care) · fi hoitaa (to treat gently or with great care) · fi hauduttaa (to cook slowly in hot water) · cs rozmazlit (to treat gently or with great care) · de überbehüten (To exercise excessive or damaging authority in an attempt to protect) · ro fierbe la foc mic (to cook slowly in hot water) · el παραχαϊδεύω (To exercise excessive or damaging authority in an attempt to protect)