kid-glove

1. not comparableMarked by extreme care or sensitivity.

   kid-glove handling

   2 more examples

   “Hell’s bells, no!” said the discreetly indiscreet Ambassador. “I’m a diplomat now. I've got to don kid glove manners.”

   1929 June 24, Charles G. Dawes, quotee, “National Affairs”, in Time, volume 13, number 25, page 11

   Specifically, Lang and others complain that while the journal has printed many negative articles about HIV skeptics, the orthodoxy has received kid-glove treatment.

   1995 August, Celia Farber, “AIDS: Words from the Front”, in Spin, →ISSN, page 89

present singular third person kid-gloves · participle present kid-gloving · participle past kid-gloved · past kid-gloved

1. idiomaticinformaltransitiveTo treat mildly.

   ‘They're all pro-German. We should shoot the leaders, pack the rest off to France. In my opinion, there is too much kid-gloving in this country.’

   2001, Jamie O'Neill, At Swim, Two Boys, Scribner, →ISBN, page 491

   1 more example

   It is the policy of the politician to avoid trouble, to soft pedal on principle so that votes will not be lost. But, as day follows night, kid-gloving criminals leads to anarchy.

   1943, Hon. Clare E. Hoffman, “Better Late Than Never”, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 78th Congress, volume 89, United States Government Printing Office, page A3226

   Synonyms: wrist-slap