gentle
kindly; amiable: a gentle manner.
not severe, rough, or violent; mild: a gentle wind;a gentle tap on the shoulder.
moderate: gentle heat.
gradual: a gentle slope.
of good birth or family; wellborn.
characteristic of good birth; honorable; respectable: a gentle upbringing.
easily handled or managed; tractable: a gentle animal.
soft or low: a gentle sound.
polite; refined: Consider, gentle reader, my terrible predicament at this juncture.
entitled to a coat of arms; armigerous.
Archaic. noble; chivalrous: a gentle knight.
to tame; render tractable.
to mollify; calm; pacify.
to make gentle.
to stroke; soothe by petting.
to ennoble; dignify.
Origin of gentle
1synonym study For gentle
Other words for gentle
Opposites for gentle
Other words from gentle
- gen·tle·ness, noun
- gen·tly, adverb
- o·ver·gen·tle, adjective
- un·gen·tle, adjective
- un·gen·tle·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use gentle in a sentence
The fit was continued so long that his neighbors began to protest in their ungentle fashion.
The Incendiary | W. A. (William Augustine) LeahyThe policeman calls the wagon and Josephina is taken up by several ungentle hands and tossed into it like a sack of coal.
I, Mary MacLane | Mary MacLaneBy the new light of knowledge, how certain they were that they had seen her ungentle training in a dozen little instances.
Evan Harrington, Complete | George MeredithFor her part, Kathleen was beginning to realise that the rough exterior concealed a character truthful, and not ungentle.
Grey Town | Gerald BaldwinHaving despatched my business, I was hastening to depart, when I was arrested by a voice less ungentle than the others.
Discipline | Mary Brunton
British Dictionary definitions for gentle
/ (ˈdʒɛntəl) /
having a mild or kindly nature or character
soft or temperate; mild; moderate: a gentle scolding
gradual: a gentle slope
easily controlled; tame: a gentle horse
archaic of good breeding; noble: gentle blood
archaic gallant; chivalrous
to tame or subdue (a horse)
to appease or mollify
obsolete to ennoble or dignify
a maggot, esp when used as bait in fishing
archaic a person who is of good breeding
Origin of gentle
1Derived forms of gentle
- gently, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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