velvet glove
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It described her as having an "iron fist under the velvet glove", and observed that she knew how to "cut down Himalayan egos to the height of foothills".
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
“That velvet glove can come off, and the people know it can come off,” but mostly, you want them to comply because it feels like “just what has to be.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2025
“We’ve got to a point where we can no longer be able to afford the velvet glove diplomacy.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 16, 2023
Still, within the velvet glove remains an iron fist.
From New York Times ● Jan. 13, 2022
He was a young promoted clerk, a Scotsman born, with little experience of the Canadian wilds, but with the natural faculty of rule and a good deal of diplomacy—the gauntlet in the velvet glove.
From All Afloat A Chronicle of Craft and Waterways by William Charles Henry Wood
