Caddle

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To handle or hold someone gently and affectionately, especially in a dialect or regional usage
2. Showing tender, fond physical attention by stroking, petting, or holding a person close
3. Giving affectionate, cosy touching or fondling as a way of showing care or comfort

Etymology: In Scots and northern English dialect, "caddle" is a verb for fussing over trifles or dawdling at small tasks, the sort of busy idleness a person might fall into while pottering about the house. It appears in regional dictionaries of Scots rather than in standard English, so it has stayed local and rarely travelled far beyond the north of Britain. Its exact origin is obscure, and no firmly documented link to a better-known English word has been established, so any tidy family tree would be guesswork. What survives is mainly the flavour of the sense: a small, fidgety kind of busyness that gets nothing much done.