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.

---

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

---

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

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

In 1883, 25-year-old Theodore Roosevelt, a New York City tenderfoot wearing a Brooks Brothers suit, came to what was then Dakota Territory to hunt bison.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 1, 2015

“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

Robert Bartlett, last week, "tenderfeet, enthusiastic as hell . . . college trained men . . . with their background and enthusiasm they would know what to do when we got there."

From Time Magazine Archive

You are tenderfeet, you have never lived alone in the mountains, and perhaps I can tip you a wink now and then that will be of use to you.

From The Haunted Mine by Harry Castlemon

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

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

They would not miss one syllable of the delightful remarks of this rarest of all tenderfoots, and the prelude of this coming utterance promised something that would eclipse all that had gone before.

From The Untamed by Max Brand

Bear shootin’ attracts tenderfoots; and tenderfoots have money to spend.

From Ruth Fielding In the Saddle College Girls in the Land of Gold by Alice B. Emerson

In the rough field of experience the tenderfoots and greenhorns of the Silver Fox Patrol are fast learning to take care of themselves when abroad.

From The Boy Chums in the Forest or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades by J. Watson Davis

"What's the use of livin' in a world of tenderfoots if you don't use 'em?" growled Mrs. Nitschkan.

From The Black Pearl by Mrs. Wilson Woodrow