gingerly

adjective gin·ger·ly \ ˈjin-jər-lē \

Updated on: 28 Feb 2018

Definition of gingerly

: very cautious or careful

… loose, exfoliated rock, into which he hammered pitons with the gingerly care of a carpenter finishing cabinets.
—David Roberts

His questions were gingerly and puzzled.
—John Skow

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gingerliness

noun

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gingerly

adverb

- moving gingerly
- He gingerly sorted the fragile flowers.

See gingerly defined for kids

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Examples of gingerly in a Sentence

gave the cork on the bottle of champagne a gingerly twist

Did You Know?

Etymologists take a gingerly approach to assigning any particular origins to this word. While it might have come from the name of the spice, there's nothing concrete to back up that idea. Another conjecture is that it's related to an Old French word, gensor, that meant "delicate." That's because in 16th century English an earlier sense of "gingerly" often referred to dancing or walking with dainty steps. Not till the 17th century did it change to apply to movements that were cautious in order to avoid being noisy or causing injury, and to a wary manner in handling or presenting ideas. Not too surprisingly, given its "-ly" ending, "gingerly" is also quite often correctly used as an adverb. One could thus say that "she rotated his shoulder gingerly."