Leadfingers, I never heard of that kind of "French toast" ~ maybe we have discovered another US/UK language difference.

To drift even farther from the original subject, I grew up observing cheese sandwiches buttered on one side (one "outside" side) and then placed in a hot skillet buttered-side-up. Of course, the pan was already coated in butter. After the sandwich is done on the first side, you flip it over and there's a fresh dose of butter in which to fry the second side. The final product: one standard Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

Back to "coddled" vs "poached." McGrath's two links, to "poachers" and "coddlers," show two devices designed to contain eggs when boiling them outside the shell: neither one is designed for cooking the broken-open egg submerged in boiling water au naturel, which is what I have always understood as "poaching."

It had not occurred to me that there would be a difference between boiling an egg cracked open into an open-top container versus boiling one cracked open into a coverable container ~ but now I know!