tenderly
Americanadverb
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in a soft and gentle way.
He took time to polish his new leather shoes tenderly with his handkerchief.
The wind we hated so much while climbing is now tenderly drying the sweat from our brows.
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in an affectionate, loving, or kindhearted way.
He looked down tenderly at his baby daughter.
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sensitively or carefully, as to avoid pain.
Moving tenderly, she attempted to raise herself from the floor where she had fallen.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tenderly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Despite the romantic sounding title, this 1974 song, external is actually the sound of Parton tenderly asking her musical mentor, Porter Wagoner, to let her go and pursue her solo career.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
Ms. Clark imbues Hillcrest with eerie metaphoric resonance, making it both forbidding and tenderly familiar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Maybe there was a memo sent round the royal households of Europe, but many of this year's Christmas cards seem to have similar images of showing their families holding on to each other tenderly.
From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2025
We’re introduced to him not as a thief, but as a doting father who wakes at the crack of dawn, tenderly lays his son in bed next to his sister, and heads off to work.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2025
That one in the truck just ahead, bending solicitously, even tenderly, over her patient.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
