dandle

verb

pamper, handle like a baby

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈdændəl/ / [ˈdændəɫ]

noun

Etymology: Compare Scots dandill (“to dander; go about idly; move uncertainly; trifle”), English dialectal dander (“to wander about; talk incoherently; rave”), Middle Dutch dantinnen (“to trifle”) (from French dandiner (“to swing; waddle”)), German dändeln, tändeln (“to trifle, dandle”), Middle Dutch and Provincial German danten (“to do foolish things; trifle”), German Tand (“trifle, prattle”).

A teeter-totter; a seesaw.

verb

To move up and down on one's knee or in one's arms, in affectionate play, usually said of a child.
“the young mother sat [the infant] upright in her lap, and[…]dandled it with a gloomy indifference.”
“You will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees.”
To treat with fondness or affection, as if a child; to pet.
“[T]hey have put me in a silk night-gown and gaudy fool's cap, and make me now and then stand in the window with it. I am ashamed to be dandled thus, and cannot look in the glass without blushing to see myself turned into such a pretty little master.”
“The book, thus dandled into popularity by bishops and good ladies, contained many pieces of nursery eloquence.”
To play with; to wheedle.
“captaines, who notwithstanding that they are specially imployed to make peace thorough strong execution of warre, yet they doe so dandle their doings, and dallie in the service to them committed”