tenderfoot

American  

[ten-der-foot] / ˈtɛn dərˌfʊt /

noun

tenderfoots, plural tenderfeet plural

1. a raw, inexperienced person; novice.

2. a newcomer to the ranching and mining regions of the western U.S., unused to hardships.

3. one in the lowest rank of the Boy Scouts of America or Girl Scouts of America.

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tenderfoot British  

/ ˈtɛndəˌfʊt /

noun

1. a newcomer, esp to the mines or ranches of the southwestern US

2. (formerly) a beginner in the Scouts or Guides

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tenderfeet
  plural
• tenderfoots
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tenderfoot

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50; tender ¹ + foot

Explanation

A tenderfoot is someone inexperienced. Usually, a tenderfoot is someone unaccustomed to outdoor living. Originally, a tenderfoot was an immigrant to the United States who wasn't used to the rough pioneer life, especially the hardships of ranching and mining. From there, this word came to mean any inexperienced person. A rookie on a football team is a tenderfoot. Someone new at a job could is a tenderfoot. This word best applies to people who aren't used to roughing it outdoors. A summer camp counselor who isn’t used to sleeping outside is definitely a tenderfoot.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tenderfoot tenderfeet tenderfoots

But one month later the Times accused “all Northern California” of conspiring against “Southland,” sending agents to “spy out the land and send the tenderfoot northward.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2025

She was 18, new to New York, a tenderfoot in an industry said to eat its young.

From New York Times ● Jan. 13, 2024

Yet he was a tenderfoot compared with attorney James P. Guenther, “the SBC’s long-serving outside counsel,” as investigators put it, who “had provided legal advice since 1966.”

From Washington Post ● May 24, 2022

He joins a long and eclectic tradition of tenderfoot film-makers making good on their cinematic dreams – some of whom started even younger.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 13, 2019

“Black” Burton, a man evil-tempered and malicious, had been picking a quarrel with a tenderfoot at the bar, when Thornton stepped good-naturedly between.

From "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London

Once in the woods, teachers fell back, leaving tenderfeet to find their way together.

From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2021

But there’s an advantage to being a freshman in a big class like this one — as tenderfeet, they’re not bound by deals and pacts made in previous sessions.

From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2011

Remember this Leadville was in the early Tabor period a camp largely of tenderfeet, who, released from the restraining influence of their Eastern homes, ran wild for a time; a condition exotic rather than indigenous.

From Time Magazine Archive

And as long as a fresh herd of tenderfeet are ready to jump on the country-line bandwagon.

From Time Magazine Archive

Say! fellows, it's against orders to feed pilgrims, though I guess you ain't altogether tenderfeet; but if you wants to boil your tea and cook grub on my stove, you're welcome.

From The Great Gold Rush A Tale of the Klondike by Jarvis, W. H. P. (William Henry Pope)

It could betray to our peers the awful truth that we are still greenhorns, tenderfoots, newbies.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

It was a tranquil time, a time of lolling under trees and playing the wild game of mumbly-peg, and of jollying tenderfoots, and waiting for supper.

From Tom Slade's Double Dare by Owen, R. Emmett (Robert Emmett)

An' he p'ints where them four tenderfoots is mixed up together in the back of the stage.

From Wolfville by Lewis, Alfred Henry

Cow-punchers and prospectors and such don’t look like and don’t act like what tenderfoots is accustomed to, and so they size ’em up to be different all the way through.

From Santa Fé's Partner Being Some Memorials of Events in a New-Mexican Track-end Town by Janvier, Thomas A. (Thomas Allibone)

But don't forget that tenderfoots are like moisture, they seep in everywhere.

From The Underdogs, a Story of the Mexican Revolution by Munguía, E. (Enrique)