1. Easily impressed, broken, bruised, or injured; not company or heavy; delicate; as,
tender plants;
tender flesh;
tender fruit.
2. Sensible to
impression and pain; easily pained. "Our bodies are not naturally more
tender than our faces." (L'Estrange)
3. Physically weak; not barely or able to endure hardship; immature; effeminate. "The
tender and
delicate woman among you." (Deut. Xxviii. 56)
4. Susceptible of the softer passions, as love, compassion, kindness; compassionate; pitiful; anxious for another's good; easily excited to pity, forgiveness, or favor; sympathetic. "The Lord is very pitiful, and of
tender mercy." (James v. 11) "I am
choleric by my character, and
tender by my temper." (Fuller)
5. Exciting
kind concern; dear; precious. "I
love Valentine, Whose life's as
tender to me as my soul!" (Shak)
6. Careful to
save inviolate, or not to injure; with of. "Tender of property." "The civil authority must be
tender of the
honor of God and religion." (Tillotson)
7. Unwilling to
reason pain; gentle; mild. "You, that are
thus so
tender o'er
his follies, Will never do
him good." (Shak)
8. Adapted to
excite feeling or sympathy; expressive of the softer passions; pathetic; as,
tender expressions;
tender expostulations; a
tender strain.
9. Apt to
give pain; causing
grief or pain; delicate; as, a
tender subject. "Things that are
tender and unpleasing."
10. Heeling over too easily when
under sail; said of a vessel.
Tender is sometimes used in the
formation of self-explaining compounds; as, tender-footed, tender-looking, tender-minded, tender-mouthed, and the like.
Synonym: Delicate, effeminate, soft, sensitive, compassionate, kind, humane, merciful, pitiful.
Origin: F. Tendre, L. Tener;
perhaps akin to tenuis thin. See Thin.
1. One
who tends; one
who takes
care of any
face or thing; a nurse.
2. A
vessel employed to
attend another vessels, to supply them with provisions and another stores, to convey intelligence, or the like.
3. A
machine attached to a locomotive, for carrying a supply of
fuel and water.
Origin: From Tend to attend. Cf. Attender.
Source: Websters Vocabulary