gentle

Etymology

From Middle English gentil (“courteous, noble”), from Old French gentil (“high-born, noble”), from Latin gentilis (“of the same family or clan”), from gens (“[Roman] clan”). Doublet of gentile and genteel.

adj

1. Tender and amiable; of a considerate or kindly disposition.
   Stuart is a gentle man; he would never hurt you.
2. Soft and mild rather than hard or severe.
   Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess
   I felt something touch my shoulder; it was gentle and a little slimy.
3. Docile and easily managed.
   We had a gentle swim in the lake.
   a gentle horse
4. Gradual rather than steep or sudden.
   The walks in this area have a gentle incline.
5. Polite and respectful rather than rude.
   He gave me a gentle reminder that we had to hurry up.
6. (archaic) Well-born; of a good family or respectable birth, though not noble.
   1893-1897, Charles Kendall Adams (editor), Johnson's Universal Encyclopedia British society is divided into nobility, gentry, and yeomanry, and families are either noble, gentle, or simple.

verb

1. (intransitive) To become gentle.
   “She's experienced a horrific and nasty scare and is in a state of shock, but otherwise she's relatively okay.” Conrad replied, his tone at first grim (as he recalled what he'd seen in the family room) and then it gentled to a more doctorial tone as he directed his next comments to his patient. 2013, Kathryn L.M. Reynolds, Garland Roses, Kathryn L.M. Reynolds, page 226
2. (transitive, obsolete) To ennoble.
3. (transitive, animal husbandry) To break; to tame; to domesticate.
   Yakima could have tried to catch him, gentle him as Wolf had been gentled, but having two stallions in his cavvy would lead to a different kind of trouble. 2008, Frank Leslie, The Killing Breed, Penguin
4. (transitive) To soothe; to calm; to make gentle.
   A hornist, his playing gentled by perspective, is out of sight within the woods, but his notes are heard through or over the murmuring mix of bird song and breeze in leaves. 1996, William C. Loring, An American Romantic-realist Abroad: Templeton Strong and His Music, Scarecrow Press, page 201

noun

1. (archaic) A person of high birth.
   While actual medieval societies were full of lots of peasants and a few rich and noble gentles, SCA personas tend to be nobles rather than commoners. 2012, Lizzie Stark, Leaving Mundania: Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Role-Playing Games, Chicago Review Press, page 43
2. (fishing) A maggot used as bait by anglers.
   Pooh! the whole thing is as alive and wrigging as an angler's box of gentles 1846, Douglas William Jerrold, “The History of St. Giles and St. James”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
   Years ago, on Victoria's Port Phillip Bay, the recognised bait for garfish were `gentles', a genteel word for maggots, which were especially grown for gar fishermen. 1983, The Fisherman Who Laughed, page 67
3. A trained falcon, or falcon-gentil.