How to use gingerly in a sentence
21 example sentences · adverb, adjective
Gingerly means in a cautious and delicate manner; (very) carefully or cautiously. Example: “He placed the glass jar gingerly on the concrete step.”
Examples of gingerly by meaning
adverbIn a cautious and delicate manner; (very) carefully or cautiously.
- He placed the glass jar gingerly on the concrete step.
- Gingerly the ape-man clambered up the frail rope.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 208
- When we got there and went to our room he undressed and shut off the light as I was still doing so, and I got into bed gingerly, facing his turned back, and reached out to touch him.2021, Megan Nolan, Acts of Desperation, Random House, →ISBN
adjectiveOften of movements: very careful, cautious, or delicate.
- We return to the painful subject in the gingerliest way imaginable, our mood far from affirmative, but interrogatory from first to last.1909 October 18, “Querying ‘Worse’”, in The Times-Dispatch, number 18,047, Richmond, Va., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 2
- The down "Atlantic Coast Express", headed by Pacific No. 35020 Bibby Line, passes the scene of operations at a gingerly 10 m.p.h.1961 March, Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, image caption, page 185
- Several gingerly taps on her console fired clusters of modified probes into the maelstrom of the gas giant’s atmosphere.2012, David [Alan] Mack, chapter 28, in Persistence of Memory (Star Trek: The Next Generation; Cold Equations; book 1), New York, N.Y....
More sentences with gingerly
- Still wary of sudden biteyness, Martigan gingerly turned the man so that his left side pointed up.2018, Stephen Kozeniewski, The Ghoul Archipelago, French Press, →ISBN, page 222. From the entry biteyness
- I put one Ked gingerly on the driveway to test for ice.2014, Stasia Ward Kehoe, section 120, in The Sound of Letting Go, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, page 316. From the entry ked
- I gingerly venture down the streets and into the subway exuding the palpable aura of muggability.1978, The Listener - Volumes 100-101, page 496. From the entry muggability
- "Next!" steps gingerly in to confront the medical eye fastened questioningly upon him.1914 October 11, The Sunday Times, Perth, Australia, page 1, column 9. From the entry blackjack
- Homer came over to me gingerly, then froze.2010, Katz, Jon, A dog year : rescuing Devon, the most troublesome dog in the world, page 134. From the entry herding eye
- Feeling tender around the face, she fingered herself gingerly.2009, Win Blevins, Dreams Beneath Your Feet, page 135. From the entry finger
- As the tower clears us downwind for landing, we thread our way gingerly through a hurtling mass of aerobating lightplanes.1966 August, Flying Magazine, volume 79, number 2. From the entry aerobate
- He broke off strangledly and got down on his knees, holding his left arm gingerly with his right, and vomited.1951, James Jones, From Here to Eternity, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 608. From the entry strangledly
- She led the way, stepping gingerly on the slithery moss.1926, Edgar Wallace, chapter 29, in The Black Abbot. From the entry slithery
- Stepping gingerly so as to avoid any inadvertent amphibicide, I eventually found myself at the pond's center, the water now above waist level.2015, Scott D. Sampson, How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature, page 2. From the entry amphibicide
- They tested it with their feet, gingerly, making sure the wood wasn't rotten, then stepped onto it and shone their Maglites out into the void.2008, Paul Sussman, The Last Secret Of The Temple, page 622. From the entry Maglite
- After gingerly stepping through you pause quickly to inspect the sole of your feet and brush away the visible splinters, then continue on your way.1988, Wendy Ann Wood, Vicki P., “Slivers”, in Julie Livingston, editor, Triumph Over Darkness: Understanding and Healing the Trauma of…. From the entry bark dust
- Silvia Echeverria gingerly balanced a box containing two sheets of stuffed sorrentinos in the crook of her left arm, holding the pasta like a tray of jewels.2019 August 19, Natalie Alcoba, “Food prices soar in Argentina as peso devalues”, in Al Jazeera, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2024. From the entry sorrentinos
- Part of the ceremonial was the putting of Master Blount into my arms, which was done very gingerly, with abundant cautions and precautions against my crushing or dropping him.1917, George W. Gough, chapter 19, in The Yeoman Adventurer. From the entry ikkle
- Nor did he acknowledge their presence till he had finished a section of the pattern, gingerly released the saw from its upper thumbscrew, and drawn it out of the wood.1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 77. From the entry thumbscrew
Meaning of gingerly
- adverb In a cautious and delicate manner; (very) carefully or cautiously.
- adverb Chiefly of dancing or walking: done with small, dainty steps; daintily; also, with excessive delicacy; affectedly, mincingly.
- adjective Often of movements: very careful, cautious, or delicate.
Questions about gingerly in a sentence
- How do you use gingerly in a sentence?
- Gingerly is used as an adverb and adjective. For example: “He placed the glass jar gingerly on the concrete step.”
- What is a short sentence with gingerly?
- “Gingerly the ape-man clambered up the frail rope.”
- What does gingerly mean?
- Gingerly means in a cautious and delicate manner; (very) carefully or cautiously.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gingerly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use gingerly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/gingerly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.