All 6 Uses

tentative
in
A Gesture Life
(Edited)

Anything that falls into a more personal realm is only tentatively welcomed.
p. 44.1

tentatively = in an unsure or hesitant manner
We'd made tentative plans to meet here at the hospital, and of course my unexpected stay would seem good timing (of a sort) for a visit, but a part of me doesn't want to talk to Mrs. Hickey just now, or even see her face.
p. 74.9

tentative = subject to change (possibly going to change)
She escorts me instead to the automatic doors, and we make tentative plans again, contingent upon this and that, all of it contigent still upon Patrick and Patrick alone, and the sad and peculiar notion of waiting for a heart.
p. 127.3 *
The colonel offered his hand and the girl took it and pulled herself up to her feet, her posture bent and tentative as though she were ill.
p. 173.5

tentative = cautious
And it is only when she is out of sight and I've regained myself and am retracing my steps to the store in a tentative gait in order, I must oddly hope, to persuade the assistant manager Kari of my senility and madness, that I realize how merciful and lucky it is to have avoided such a meeting with all those difficult, murky remembrances.
p. 208.5
The doctor waited and then hit him again, and again the man fell down and then got back up to his feet, this time more tentatively.
p. 264.9 *

tentatively = carefully

Definitions:

(1) (tentative as in: said it tentatively)
done in a careful or unsure way (indicating a lack of confidence in exactly what will happen)
(2) (tentative as in: a tentative plan)
subject to change (likely or possibly going to change)
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)