velvet glove

noun

1. an outwardly gentle or friendly manner used to disguise one's firm or ruthless determination.

Example Sentences

And the operatives could depend on one hard-edged principle: that those who style themselves as men of the world know there is an iron fist in every velvet glove, understand what might await them in the shadows and so, having decided to play the game, they will obey its rules.

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An iron fist demanding surrender will be wrapped in the velvet glove of its coercive premise: you can fight men about this and they’ll do it to you anyway while you go unpaid, or you can comply with men’s demands for it and maybe some of them will throw you a few bucks for the convenience of your voluntary submission.

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“The true nature of the liberal democracy project has become evident to the world, revealing it to be nothing more than a velvet glove hiding a cast iron hand,” Mr. Raisi said of the U.S. and its allies.

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“We’ve got to a point where we can no longer be able to afford the velvet glove diplomacy.”

Read more on Seattle Times

Iron fist in a velvet glove: Smiling all the while, Nan manipulates the Roy children into overpaying $10 billion just so they can outbid their now-rivalrous father.

Read more on Los Angeles Times