kid glove

plural kid gloves

1. figurativelyplural normallyA metaphorical representation of careful handling.

   to handle with kid gloves

   4 more examples

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

   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."

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

   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.

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

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

   2009, In The Loop, BBC Films

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see kid, glove.

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

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

   1 more example

   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.

   1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter V, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC