tenderfoot
Other forms: tenderfeet; tenderfoots
A tenderfoot is someone inexperienced. Usually, a tenderfoot is someone unaccustomed to outdoor living.
Originally, a tenderfoot was an immigrant to the United States who wasn't used to the rough pioneer life, especially the hardships of ranching and mining. From there, this word came to mean any inexperienced person. A rookie on a football team is a tenderfoot. Someone new at a job could is a tenderfoot. This word best applies to people who aren't used to roughing it outdoors. A summer camp counselor who isn’t used to sleeping outside is definitely a tenderfoot.
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an inexperienced person (especially someone inexperienced in outdoor living)
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Vocabulary lists containing tenderfoot
We all experience growing pains when we're in new environments, whether it is a new school or a new job. Sometimes our personal inexperience is to blame, but other times the situation itself is new and unclear because of it. Getting in on the ground floor of something can be exciting, but it can be scary, too. Here are fifteen words about situations that are new and people new to situations.
This list has all the words you need to describe every aspect of youthful inexperience, from the endearing to the annoying. For more synonym lists, explore our Say What You Mean resources.
In this Western, a fourteen-year-old girl attempts to avenge her father's death.