Tenderfoot

noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An inexperienced person; a novice. Canada, US
  2. 2
    an inexperienced person (especially someone inexperienced in outdoor living) wordnet
  3. 3
    A newcomer or arriviste to the region in the American frontier (Old West and Wild West). historical

    "Watson had risen so hurriedly that he had not been careful about his “tarp” and water had run into his bed. But that wouldn’t disconcert anybody but a tenderfoot."

  4. 4
    A Boy Scout of the lowest rank. dated

Synonyms

All synonyms
abecedarianabecedarianalphabetarianalphabetarianamateurapprentice

Antonyms

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maven

Example

More examples

"Watson had risen so hurriedly that he had not been careful about his “tarp” and water had run into his bed. But that wouldn’t disconcert anybody but a tenderfoot."

Etymology

From tender + foot. Refers to the delicate feet of newcomers to ranching or mining areas. First attested 1866.

Related phrases

boy scout

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.