tenderly
Americanadverb
-
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.
-
in an affectionate, loving, or kindhearted way.
He looked down tenderly at his baby daughter.
-
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.
Tenderly, Burns imagines her grandfather, part of the Windrush generation, being summoned back to heaven by God, the reward for a life well lived.
From BBC • Oct. 30, 2025
In his 2022 photo series, “Night Coming Tenderly, Black,” photographer Dawoud Bey reimagines the path of enslaved people escaping along the Underground Railroad.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 17, 2023
For last, I saved perhaps my favorite part of the exhibition, and the part that Bey said, if pressed to choose just one, continues to draw him in: “Night Coming Tenderly, Black.”
From Seattle Times • Nov. 23, 2022
Tenderly devoted to the prize horse first known as Darley, he also tangles warily with Cassius Marcellus Clay, the hotheaded, philandering abolitionist and one of Clay’s daughters, Mary Barr.
From New York Times • Jun. 7, 2022
Tenderly he lifted the dangling tail and arranged it gently alongside his leader.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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.
