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.

“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

A Republican colleague, Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr., once told the Herald that Ms. Meek had “a velvet glove, but sometimes she can have a fist in it. She’s so likable that it’s sometimes disarming.”

From Washington Post • Nov. 29, 2021

“It’s nice if you can put a velvet glove over the iron fist.”

From New York Times • Feb. 21, 2018

Although there was an apparent kindliness in his manner, one could not help feeling that it was only the velvet glove masking the iron hand concealed below.

From The Kidnapped President by Boothby, Guy Newell