kid-gloves treatment

to treat somebody or someone with kid-gloves

to deal with someone very gently or carefully

These athletes grow up being treated with kid gloves, and then they don't know how the real world works. (Definition of treat someone with kid gloves from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

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Why Do We Handle Something 'With Kid Gloves?'
No children were harmed in the making of this article
To handle or treat something with kid gloves is to do so with special consideration or in a tactful manner, often due to a perceived sensitivity.

Kid gloves are simply gloves made from kid leather—in other words, the skin from a young goat. They date from the 18th century, though early ones were often made from the more available lambskin.

kid gloves
The 'kid' in 'kid gloves' is a young goat, not a young person.


Kid leather is soft and smooth, making it a perfect material for handling objects (such as silverware) without leaving smudges. It was the material used to make the classic white gloves worn by house servants, for example, or by those handling museum artifacts.

Before long, kid gloves were associated with the aristocracy, a staple of foppish characters. The White Rabbit carries a pair in Alice in Wonderland:

It was the White Rabbit returning , splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came, "Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!"
—Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

To the rougher classes, however, the gloves might have seemed a delicate affectation:

Our faces took the sunburn kindly; our chests gained in compass, and our shoulders in breadth and squareness; our great brown fists looked as if they had never been capable of kid gloves.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance, 1852

Kid-glove was entered in the 1909 Webster's New International Dictionary as an adjective meaning "wearing kid gloves; hence, characterized by the fastidiousness, daintiness, or delicacy looked for in those who wear kid gloves."

Use of the figurative phrase with kid gloves took hold by the end of the 19th century. The earliest citation shown in the Oxford English Dictionary is from James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce in his 1888 work The American Commonwealth, and by the 20th century the phrase connoted timidity or fecklessness:


But in exposing the alliance of Tammany Hall and the unscrupulous corporation managers, [New York City mayor Seth Low] should not have shrunk from mentioning names. This, the most serious menace to the cause of good government, cannot be handled with kid gloves.
—editorial, The Nation, 29 Oct. 1903

I wanted my mother to yell back at me, but she didn't. She turned to my father and spoke very slow. "I don't know," she said. "You raise them with kid gloves and then they walk all over you. What's the point?" She repeated "What's the point?" over and over as she left the room.
—Judy Blume, Then Again, Maybe I Won't, 1986

Though it might be reasonable to hear kid gloves and think of the kind of gloves worn by kids—as in children, perhaps like a mitten clipped to a coat sleeve—it's not clear how many people interpret the phrase this way. On rare occasions we see the phrase altered to a diminutive form, which suggests that children, not goats, may have been what the writer had in mind.


Pack leaders Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have taken the kiddie gloves off and have finally started to pummel each other, specifically with Trump going after Cruz for being born in Canada.
—Scott Sutton, The Chicago Sun-Times, 14 Jan. 2016

She mixes the news with fearless finger-wagging that's just fun to read no matter the subject. She tackles the industry monoliths without the kiddy gloves and she seems to have command of the beat.
—quoted by Joe Calloway in Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business, 2015

mollycoddle
 
verb | MAH-lee-kah-dul

 
What It Means
 
When you mollycoddle someone, you are treating that person with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence or attention.
 
// The newborn cub at the wildlife park enjoys being mollycoddled by its mother.
 

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Examples of MOLLYCODDLE
 
“Former Barnsley and Leeds United manager Heckingbottom has never been one to mollycoddle players and he says it is up to the individuals concerned to ensure they are getting the fitness work they need if his attention is dragged elsewhere.” — Stuart Rayner, Yorkshire Post (England), 17 Jan. 2023

 
Did You Know?
 
Coddling eggs is delicate business. You need to cook them slowly and gently, keeping the water just below boiling. Given how carefully you need to treat the eggs, it's not surprising that some believe the cooking sense of coddle led to the sense meaning “to treat with excessive care or kindness.” Another source is possible though: the “pamper” coddle may be linked to caudle, a curative drink of yore made usually of warm ale or wine mixed with bread or gruel, eggs, sugar, and spices. Regardless, mollycoddle was formed by combining the “pamper” sense of coddle with Molly, a nickname for Mary. In its earliest known uses in the mid-1800s, mollycoddle was a noun, a disparaging and now-dated synonym of our modern wimp. But in short time, it was being used as the verb you're likely to encounter today.

 
Did You Know?
 
Coddling eggs is delicate business. You need to cook them slowly and gently, keeping the water just below boiling. Given how carefully you need to treat the eggs, it's not surprising that some believe the cooking sense of coddle led to the sense meaning “to treat with excessive care or kindness.” Another source is possible though: the “pamper” coddle may be linked to caudle, a curative drink of yore made usually of warm ale or wine mixed with bread or gruel, eggs, sugar, and spices. Regardless, mollycoddle was formed by combining the “pamper” sense of coddle with Molly, a nickname for Mary. In its earliest known uses in the mid-1800s, mollycoddle was a noun, a disparaging and now-dated synonym of our modern wimp. But in short time, it was being used as the verb you're likely to encounter today.

 


Antonym
The phrase "to the full extent of the law" or "to the fullest extent of the law" is an idiom that means as much as allowed by the law1. It is often used to express a strong intention to prosecute or punish someone for a crime or wrongdoing. The word "fullest" is not necessary, as the law has a fixed extent, but it is commonly used as a rhetorical device.

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Марина Королева: Откуда пошло выражение "держать в ежовых рукавицах"
Марина Королева (журналист, кандидат филологических наук)

- Не знаю, какой он начальник, но отец точно слишком строгий, держит всю семью в ежовых рукавицах!

Держать в ежовых рукавицах: обходиться строго и сурово, полностью подчинять себе, держать в жестком повиновении. Одна из самых оригинальных версий, которые я слышала об этом устойчивом выражении - оно связано с фамилией сталинского наркома внутренних дел Николая Ежова, которого считают одним из организаторов массовых репрессий. На 1937 год, когда Ежов возглавлял НКВД, пришелся пик "большого террора", сам этот период называли "ежовщиной". Казалось бы, вот и ответ на вопрос о том, что такое "держать в ежовых рукавицах". Но...

Не спешите. Вспомните "Капитанскую дочку" А.С. Пушкина: Петруша Гринёв передает письмо отца его старинному другу, генералу Андрею Карловичу Р., немцу по происхождению. Тот читает письмо: "Теперь о деле... К вам моего повесу"... гм... "держать в ежовых рукавицах"... Что такое ешовы рукавиц? Это, должно быть, русска поговорк...".

Как видим, "в ежовых рукавицах" могли держать в России задолго до наркома Ежова. Словарь русской фразеологии уточняет, что выражение известно с XIX века, но в составе пословицы встречалось еще в первой половине XVIII века: "Ежовыми рукавицами да за мягкое тело приниматься". Теперь понятно, что речь действительно шла о рукавицах - но каких? Может быть, каких-то особых, игольчатых, какими бывают ежи?

ОБЩЕСТВО
Марина Королева: Каналья гораздо хуже бестии

Словари и на это дают ответ. "Ежовый" вовсе не означает "из ежа" или "похожий на ежа". Ежовый - такой, в котором (или которым) можно удержать ежа в руках. И опять нам помогут поговорки: "ежа - голыми руками не возьмешь", "голыми руками ежа не ухватишь". Ежовые рукавицы (они же "голицы") - это рабочие кожаные рукавицы без подкладки и меха, которые надежно защищали руки от повреждений при работе. Ловить ежей в них тоже было можно!

Но, похоже, применяли их не только для работы или ловли ежей, среди поговорок из собрания В. Даля есть и такая: "Ежовая голица учить мастерица". И этот смысл совсем уже близок к известному нам выражению "держать в ежовых рукавицах"...

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