gingerly

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“
He pronounced the word gingerly, distastefully, as if it were a curious, unwonted one.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adverb With great care or delicacy; cautiously.
  2. adjective Cautious; careful.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • But when he picked it up -gingerly, as though it might yet release an electrical jolt or some other hidden energy -- he saw that the tiny perforations formed an image, blurred but unmistakable. —  F ;SF; - vol 087 issue 02 - August 1994
  • She reached up to touch her forehead gingerly, her fingertips barely brushing the skin. —  Storm Watcher Galley
  • He pronounced the word gingerly, distastefully, as if it were a curious, unwonted one. —  The Lee Shore
  • She lasted it at first rather gingerly, then took a little larger sup of it, and then put it to her lips and never slopped drinking till the last drop was gone. —  Death Valley in '49
  • But for all that I walked gingerly, and stopped to sniff at every step that I took downward; for I could not by any means get rid of my dread of coming upon some grewsome thing. —  In the Sargasso Sea A Novel
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Possibly alteration of obsolete French gensor, delicate, from Old French, comparative of gent, gentle; see gent1.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from ginger + -ly.
  2. from ginger + -ly, after gingerly, adv.
 

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/ˈdʒɪndʒərli/
by American Heritage

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