tenderfoot
Americannoun
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a raw, inexperienced person; novice.
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a newcomer to the ranching and mining regions of the western U.S., unused to hardships.
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one in the lowest rank of the Boy Scouts of America or Girl Scouts of America.
noun
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a newcomer, esp to the mines or ranches of the southwestern US
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(formerly) a beginner in the Scouts or Guides
Etymology
Origin of tenderfoot
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.
Vocabulary lists containing tenderfoot
I'm New Here...
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Made You Look: Synonyms for "Immature"
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True Grit
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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.
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
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
While elegant with white-plaster walls, stainless-steel kitchen appliances and posh comforts, the cabin’s not a total tenderfoot, either.
From Washington Times • Aug. 1, 2015
No wonder he’s like a boot, hard on the outside, giving shape to a pulp of tenderfoot.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
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.
