English

Alternative forms

• tenderhanded

Adjective

tender-handed ‎(comparative more tender-handed, superlative most tender-handed)

1. Gentle; Having a light touch and compassionate actions.
   • 1894, Alexander Whyte, Samuel Rutherford - and some of his correspondents:

     Earlston must have remembered once dining in the Manse of Maxton at a Communion time; for, as his tender-handed wife took her place beside his chair to feed her helpless husband, he always lifted up his palsied hand and always said to himself, to her, and above all, to God, the 131st Psalm.

   • 1949, Roy Earl Teele, Through a Glass Darkly: A Study of English Translations of Chinese Poetry, page 105:

     A momentary coolness from the dark Flows inward on the tender-handed breeze.

   • 2012, Tiffany Baker, The Gilly Salt Sisters, ISBN 0446575097:

     "Because I know all about you Gilly girls. Remember when" -- he slid his thumb lower on her neck, down to the spot where her pulse beat-- "you caught that fish and made me throw it back, and then you hooked your hand? I bet you're not so tender-handed now."

2. With hands that are very sensitive and easily hurt.
   • 1962, Roscoe Carlyle Buley, The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815-1840 - Volume 1, page 233:

     Resinous splinters or rolled paper tapers were kept on the fireboard for candle lighters; also perhaps tongs for the tender-handed pipe lighter who could not handle a live coal in his hands.

   • 2003, Derba Wise & ‎Sandra Forrest, Great Big Book of Children's Games, ISBN 0071422463, page 213:

     This game of tennis without rackets is not for the tender-handed.

   • 2014, Alice Morse Earle, Curious Punishments of Bygone Days, ISBN 0486780880:

     The English gallants who came to the colony for adventure or to escape punishment were very tender-handed. They were sent into the woods to cut down trees for clapboard, but their hands soon blistered under the heavy axe helves, and the pain caused them to frequently cry out in grat oaths.

Adverb

tender-handed ‎(comparative more tender-handed, superlative most tender-handed)

1. Gently; With a light touch.
   • 1866, Mrs. Warren (Eliza), How I Managed My House on £200 (one Thousand Dollars) a Year:

     You know the old rhyme, — " ' Tender-handed touch the nettle, And it stings you for your pains ; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains.' So, little friend, difficulties vanish before resolution and action."

   • 1892, T Graham Gribble, Engineering Magazine - Volume 3, page 746:

     It cannot be treated tender-handed or it will laugh at the puny fetters that seek to bind it, but it may be mastered at far less cost than the loss which it will produce if let alone, and its proper treatment for the purpose of self-preservation will at the same time make it into an ocean highway from New Orleans to Chicago.

   • 1906, The Dublin Review - Volume 138, page 68:

     Kinspeople, tender-handed, Found on the foreshore's brim A corpse the harsh sea stranded — And so far well with him.

   • 2012, Ernest Barker, Traditions of Civility: Eight Essays, ISBN 110765310X, page 239:

     But though Paley has grasped this idea, he has grasped it tender-handed. If he had grasped it firmly, he would have argued that the basis of government in public opinion involves a system of popular government.