tenderfoot
tenderfoot noun: an inexperienced person; a novice.
Noun
tenderfoot (plural tenderfeet or tenderfoots)
- An inexperienced person; a novice.
- Synonyms:
- abecedarian, alphabetarian, apprentice, amateur, beginner, bun, colt, first-timer, fledgling, FNG
- A newcomer or arriviste to the region in the American frontier (Old West and Wild West).
- Watson had risen so hurriedly that he had not been careful about his “tarp” and water had run into his bed. But that wouldn’t disconcert anybody but a tenderfoot.1914, Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, Houghton Mifflin Company, page 173
- Up to the time, Ranse Foster had been a nobody in particular - a dude from the East, quietly inquisitive, moving from one shack town to another; just another tenderfoot[.]1949, Dorothy M. Johnson, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 91
- A Boy Scout of the lowest rank.
Synonyms of tenderfoot
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of tenderfoot
| plural | tenderfeet |
|---|---|
| plural | tenderfoots |
Origin of tenderfoot
From tender + foot. Refers to the delicate feet of newcomers to ranching or mining areas. First attested 1866.
Words formed from tenderfoot
Questions about tenderfoot
- What does tenderfoot mean?
- Tenderfoot means an inexperienced person; a novice.
- What part of speech is tenderfoot?
- Tenderfoot is a noun.
- What is the plural of tenderfoot?
- The plural of tenderfoot is tenderfeet.
Words near tenderfoot in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tenderfoot (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “tenderfoot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tenderfoot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.