to baby up
6
8.8
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
mimar
- "Do we?" she shouts, her face babying up.
Examples
-
It's easy to baby up your child with too many toys and treats.
-
Patrick playfully lifts the baby up over his head: Patrick
Fiction book (2000) -
I'm gonna wake this baby up.
-
Settle back, and I'm gonna fire this baby up.
-
And you chose to dress that baby up in a T-shirt that says what?
-
She tends to baby up her puppy by carrying it everywhere and giving it all the snacks.
-
He often babies up his elderly parents by doing everything for them, even when they can manage on their own.
Synonyms
70
3.7
To give a child too many gifts or freedoms, causing bad behavior
42
3.7
To give someone too much care and special treatment
37
6.4
Treat someone with too much care so they become less independent
30
6.0
To treat someone with too much care and make things too easy for them
3
6.7
To give someone too much kindness and gifts so they expect special treatment
To give someone so much care and affection that they feel overwhelmed
Antonyms
How Indulgent
Surface Forms
Morphology
baby + up
The core meaning 'to pamper or spoil' is directly carried by the verb 'baby' (to treat someone with excessive care), and the particle 'up' here serves as a common intensifier/completive in English phrasal-verb patterns. This compositional pattern is regular and cross-linguistically familiar, so an average B1 learner who knows the constituents would likely infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The phrasal verb baby up comes from the image of treating someone like a baby and picking them up, doing everything for them. So it means 'to pamper or spoil someone by giving them too much care'.