Library / English Dictionary

TENDERLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

With tenderness; in a tender manner

Example:

tenderly she placed her arms round him

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

tender (having or displaying warmth or affection)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Both were kissed very tenderly, but Tom she wanted to keep by her, to try to trace the features of the baby she had loved, and talked to, of his infant preference of herself.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. John Knightley was a pretty, elegant little woman, of gentle, quiet manners, and a disposition remarkably amiable and affectionate; wrapt up in her family; a devoted wife, a doating mother, and so tenderly attached to her father and sister that, but for these higher ties, a warmer love might have seemed impossible.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Miss Bingley's civility to Elizabeth increased at last very rapidly, as well as her affection for Jane; and when they parted, after assuring the latter of the pleasure it would always give her to see her either at Longbourn or Netherfield, and embracing her most tenderly, she even shook hands with the former.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

One by one he took out a succession of beautiful rifles, opening and shutting them with a snap and a clang, and then patting them as he put them back into the rack as tenderly as a mother would fondle her children.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Annie!” said the Doctor, tenderly taking her in his hands.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But recollecting how nearly he had lost her, he held her close, saying tenderly, with her cheek against his own, "I've got you safe, my Beth, and I'll keep you so, please God."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Elinor tenderly invited her to be open.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But I was restrained, when I thought of the heroic and suffering Elizabeth, whom I tenderly loved, and whose existence was bound up in mine.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He spoke to me before he went out, never more sweetly or tenderly, but he never mentioned a word of what had happened in the visit to the Count's house.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The Winkies lifted him tenderly in their arms, and carried him back to the Yellow Castle again, Dorothy shedding a few tears by the way at the sad plight of her old friend, and the Lion looking sober and sorry.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)