Definition of "gingerly"
gingerly
adverb
comparative more gingerly, superlative most gingerly
In a cautious and delicate manner; (very) carefully or cautiously.
Quotations
In an other corner, Mistris Minx, a marchants wife, that will eate no cherries, forsooth, but when they are at twentie shillings a pound, that lookes as simperingly as if she were besmeard, and iets it as gingerly as if she were dancing the canaries, […]
1592, Thomas Nash[e], Pierce Penilesse His Supplication to the Deuill. […], London: […] [John Charlewood for] Richard Ihones, […]; republished as J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Pierce Penniless’s Supplication to the Devil. […], London: […] [Frederic Shoberl, Jun.] for the Shakespeare Society, 1842, page 21
Prithee, gentle officer, / Handle me gingerly, or I fall to pieces, / Before I can plead mine.
1624 November 3 (first performance), Philip Massinger, “The Parliament of Love”, in W[illiam] Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger, […], volume II, London: […] G[eorge] and W[illiam] Nicol; […] by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co. […], published 1805, Act V, scene i, page 307
[…] Sir W. Pen made a formal speech in answer to a question of the King's, whether the lying of the sunk ships in the river would spoil the river. But, Lord! how gingerly he answered it, and with a deal of do that he did not know whether it would be safe as to the enemy to have them taken up, but that doubtless it would be better for the river to have them taken up.
1667 July 13 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “July 3rd, 1667”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VII, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1896, page 5
Purchasing a snowplow transforms Homer [Simpson] into a new man. Mr. Burns' laziest employee suddenly becomes an ambitious self-starter who buys ad time on local television at 3:17 A.M (prime viewing hours, Homer gingerly volunteers, for everyone from alcoholics to the unemployable to garden-variety angry loners) and makes a homemade commercial costarring his family.
2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “The Simpsons (Classic): ‘Mr. Plow’”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 27 October 2020
[Martin Luther] King [Jr.] was later said to have been within a sneeze or a jolt of extinction. Were it not for the pair of cops who gingerly carried him from Blumstein’s department store and the pair of surgeons who performed lifesaving surgery at Harlem Hospital there would have been no "I Have a Dream" speech and likely no national holiday honoring him.
2014 January 20, Michael Daly, “The Black and White Men who Saved Martin Luther King’s Life”, in The Daily Beast, published 14 April 2017 (update), archived from the original on 18 January 2021
(obsolete) Chiefly of dancing or walking: done with small, dainty steps; daintily; also, with excessive delicacy; affectedly, mincingly.
Quotations
Oh! ſhe lookes ſo ſugredly, ſo ſimpringly, ſo gingerly, ſo amarouſly, ſo amiably. […] [She] is ſuch an intycing ſhee-vvitch, carrying the charmes of your Ievvels about her. Oh!
1604 (first performance), Tho[mas] Dekker, Iohn Webster [i.e., John Webster], VVest-vvard Hoe. […], London: […] Iohn Hodgets […], published 1607, Act II
adjective
comparative more gingerly, superlative most gingerly