kid glove

See also: kid-glove

English

Etymology

From kid gloves (made from the skin of a young lamb or goat), a particularly fine, soft material.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

kid glove (plural kid gloves)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see kid,‎ glove.
   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter V, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

     As he saw her hands in their old black kid gloves getting the silver out of the worn purse, his heart contracted with pain of love of her.

   • 1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, London: Duckworth & Co., […], →OCLC:

     By degrees the room grew perceptibly hotter. The smell of kid gloves mingled with the strong scent of flowers.

2. (figurative, usually in the plural) A metaphorical representation of careful handling.

   to handle with kid gloves

   He's usually very sensitive about this sort of thing; make sure you put on your kid gloves before you see him.

   • 2005, Jeffrey John Kripal, Glenn W. Shuck, On the Edge of the Future: Esalen and the Evolution of American Culture, page 154:

     His friend Penny Vieregge provided a glimpse into his actual experience when she described the "incredible fragility" in Dick at the time, "like fine, fine, porcelain. . . . I wanted to put on kid gloves and be there in case the shattering came."

   • 2008, Barbie Jones, The Power to Choose - A Victim No More, page 44:

     This time around the enemy took off the kid gloves. He saw that his previous plans to destroy me had failed. Instead of sending boys to do a man's job, he sent a man that he knew would win me over.

   • 2009, In The Loop, BBC Films:

     Malcolm: Be gentle with them.
     Jamie: Oh, you know me Malc. Kid gloves, but made from real kids.

   • 2023 March 15, Kevin Roose, “GPT-4 Is Exciting and Scary”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Unlike Bing, GPT-4 usually flat-out refused to take the bait when I tried to get it to talk about consciousness, or get it to provide instructions for illegal or immoral activities, and it treated sensitive queries with kid gloves and nuance.

Derived terms

• handle with kid gloves
• kid-glove

Translations

metaphor for careful handling

• Finnish: silkkihansikkaat pl
• German: Samthandschuh (de) m, Glacéhandschuh m
• Swedish: silkesvante (sv) c