Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Considerate or kindly in disposition; amiable and tender.
- adjective Not harsh or severe; mild and soft.
- adjective Easily managed or handled; docile.
- adjective Not steep or sudden; gradual.
- adjective Of good family; wellborn.
- adjective Suited to one of good breeding; refined and polite.
- adjective Archaic Noble; chivalrous.
- noun One of good birth or relatively high station.
- transitive verb To make less severe or intense.
- transitive verb To soothe, as by stroking; pacify.
- transitive verb To tame or break (a horse).
- transitive verb Obsolete To raise to the status of a noble.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make or constitute gentle, or as if gentle; place in the rank of gentlemen; raise from a vulgar or ignoble condition.
- To make gentle in manner or appearance; render mild and amiable; soften; subdue: as, to
gentle a colt. - Of good birth or family; well-born; specifically, belonging to the gentry as distinguished from the nobility: as, the studies of noble and gentle youth.
- Pertaining to or characteristic of good birth or station; honorable; respectable; refined.
- Of well-bred character or quality; gracious; courteous; kindly and considerate; not rough or harsh; mild; soothing: as, a gentle nurse; a gentle nature, manner, voice.
- Tame; docile; tractable; peaceable; not wild or refractory: as, a gentle horse or hawk.
- Improved by cultivation; ameliorated; domesticated.
- Soft; mild in action, performance, or use; not rude or boisterous: as, a gentle breeze; a gentle tap; a gentle tone.
- Refreshing; reviving.
- Gradual; easy; not steep; moderate in degree; not sharply defined: as, a gentle slope; the gentle curves of a river or a figure.
- noun A person of good family; a person of gentle birth; a gentleman.
- noun In falconry, a falcon-gentle; a trained hawk: whence one of the names of the common goshawk of Europe, Falco gentilis.
- noun A maggot or larva of the flesh-fly, used in fishing.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete One well born; a gentleman.
- noun A trained falcon. See
Falcon-gentil . - noun (Zoöl.) A dipterous larva used as fish bait.
- transitive verb obsolete To make genteel; to raise from the vulgar; to ennoble.
- transitive verb R. or Poet. To make smooth, cozy, or agreeable.
- transitive verb colloq. To make kind and docile, as a horse.
- adjective Well-born; of a good family or respectable birth, though not noble.
- adjective Quiet and refined in manners; not rough, harsh, or stern; mild; meek; bland; amiable; tender
- adjective A compellative of respect, consideration, or conciliation.
- adjective Not wild, turbulent, or refractory; quiet and docile; tame; peaceable.
- adjective Soft; not violent or rough; not strong, loud, or disturbing; easy; soothing; pacific.
- adjective the art or trade of shoemaking.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Tender andamiable ; of aconsiderate orkindly disposition - adjective
Soft andmild rather thanhard orsevere - adjective
Docile and easilymanaged - adjective
Gradual rather thansteep orsudden - adjective
Polite andrespectful rather thanrude - verb intransitive to become gentle
- verb transitive to
ennoble - verb transitive, animal husbandry to
break ; to tame; to domesticate - verb transitive To
soothe ; tocalm . - noun archaic A person of high birth.
- noun archaic A
maggot used as bait by anglers
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective having little impact
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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And as, in this battle of thoughts, those which spoke for her won the victory, it seemed to me becoming to address her, and I said this sonnet, which begins, 'A gentle thought '; and I called it _gentle_ because I was speaking to a gentle lady, -- but otherwise it was most vile.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 17, March, 1859 Various
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"In this sense the true lover need not be a _gentleman_ but he must be a _gentle man_, loving not by genteel code of caste but by gentle code of character."
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III. iv.76 (474,6) Ere human statute purg'd the gentle weal] The _gentle weal_, is, the _peaceable community_, the state made quiet and safe by
Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746
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We refer to the term gentle discipline with our children but how does one do that with a puppy?
Apron Thrift Girl 2009
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MANSFIELD: George was what we called the gentle Beatle.
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For Aristippus the end of life is pleasure, which he defines as gentle motion.
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women Havelock Ellis 1899
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The meek man of the Bible is simply what we call the gentle-man -- the man without swagger or arrogance, not self-assertive or forthputting, but honorable and considerate.
Mornings in the College Chapel Short Addresses to Young Men on Personal Religion Francis Greenwood Peabody 1891
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Myanmar's military leader, General Than Shwe, has spoken at a military parade of what he called gentle moves toward democracy being made by his country.
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Bearded, affable, self-deprecating and appalled by the destructive footprint that buildings, roads and parking lots can leave on the earth, Mr. Wells was dedicated to what he called gentle architecture, something that would, as he put it, "leave the land no worse than you found it."
NYT > Home Page By BRUCE WEBER 2010
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In particular, I was attracted to their Olive Scrub, which they describe as a gentle exfoliant that also moisturizes since it contains olive oil and other natural emollients.
bilby commented on the word gentle
Maggots!
June 8, 2014