gentle
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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Celebrated Japanese writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda specializes in gentle, sentimental films about the tiny fissures that form along the foundation of families.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
The opening “Hit the Wall” begins with a gentle repeating synth pulse and spare piano chords, dropping us into the familiar world of Mr. Dessner’s productions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
People still marvel at Miyazaki’s handcrafted backgrounds and his painstaking dedication to balancing its feather-light score with the melodies of flowing water or the gentle crunch of a child’s footfalls on grass and gravel.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026
On Wednesday, the usual bad-tempered jibes and angry exchanges witnessed in the political theatre of the weekly Prime Minister's Questions, were replaced by gentle ribbing.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
I stay in his house and his family feeds me and they treat me with the same gentle courtesy the older man showed me earlier.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
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Scientists have been exploring enzymatic DNA synthesis as a gentler alternative because it uses water and more closely resembles the way living cells naturally build DNA.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
So far, insiders say his promised “regime change” has been kinder and gentler than feared—more courtship than chain saw.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
Colbert’s version is gentler but also the most successful.
From Salon ● May 21, 2026
But when Jamie Bell was cast as Niall, the gentler, more repressed character of the duo, he persuaded Gadd to take the role.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026
Often, however, I write good words in her journal, hoping that when she sees them she will know that I care about her and be gentler with me.
From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat
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"People have come back to tell me that he had the gentlest soul, he's hard-working - and he was very hard-working right until his last breath."
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2026
Leave it to Kelly Reichardt, who turned Michelle Williams into a seething sculptor with frenemy issues in “Showing Up,” to make the gentlest, most self-deprecating heist movie imaginable.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2025
“You have the gentlest voice,” Sonia tells him.
From New York Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
His brand, created with veterinary dermatologists, aims to use the gentlest chemicals it can, and avoids artificial fragrances.
From Slate ● Sep. 30, 2023
All different kinds, each promising it was the gentlest on your skin.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
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Coconut milk gentles the green-chile heat in the thick, creamy sauce.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2017
Mallory Ortberg: That’s all for this week, gentles.
From Slate ● Nov. 29, 2016
Saturday's conditions at Whistling Straits led to outstanding scores, as gentles breezes off Lake Michigan, combined with greens that Phil Mickelson described as "pristine, beautiful, large and receptive," produced a festival of birdies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2015
His wife gentles the vice president into letting her take over her husband's job, then draws him into helping her replace $9,000 her husband has stolen.
From Time Magazine Archive
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These Ladies, ne these gentles ne'ertheless, Where none of those that wroughten in this wise; But such women as weren vertueless They quittin thus these old Clerkis wise.
From Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse by Various
It seems somehow like he’s gentled us into it with benevolent trickery — as if he’d said, “Look! Over there,” and while we were distracted ripped a Band-Aid off our skin.
From New York Times ● Sep. 20, 2022
On the phone from Britain, Wainwright speaks in quick, declarative sentences, gentled a bit by her Yorkshire accent with its long A’s, round O’s and forgiving consonants, but still quite direct.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2019
I don’t want to be gentled, like I’m something wild and alarming.
From The Guardian ● May 8, 2016
After nearly 20 years as a gallery destination, and despite a spate of sleek new apartment buildings, it is still nothing but art, and it still feels surprisingly raw — gentrified but not especially gentled.
From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2011
I was ashamed to be caught staring, but I put my hands on the palfrey, and he gentled, as they always do.
From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz
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The material doesn’t want sophisticated adults mucking about in it or, worse, gentling its hard edges for commercial consumption.
From New York Times ● Apr. 11, 2024
Like a grade-school teacher, the matrix provides a physical framework that supports and organizes the cells, gentling and channeling them to harmoniously create a functional tissue.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2024
These handling and gentling exercises will essentially be like playing doctor with your puppy.
From Fox News ● Mar. 23, 2022
This gentling spares many vulnerable kids years of suffering.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2013
Gradually we drifted off, the whispers of breeze-blown branches and the breathing of horses gentling us to sleep.
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
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Vocabulary lists containing gentle
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