Hypertext Webster Gateway: "tenderest"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Tender \Ten"der\, a. [Compar. {Tenderer}; superl. {Tenderest}.]
[F. tendre, L. tener; probably akin to tenuis thin. See
{Thin}.]
1. Easily impressed, broken, bruised, or injured; not firm or
hard; 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 hardly 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 nature, 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.'' --Burke.

The civil authority should be tender of the honor of
God and religion. --Tillotson.

7. Unwilling to cause 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.''
--Bacon.

10. (Naut.) Heeling over too easily when under sail; -- said
of a vessel.

Note: Tender is sometimes used in the formation of
self-explaining compounds; as, tender-footed,
tender-looking, tender-minded, tender-mouthed, and the
like.

Syn: Delicate; effeminate; soft; sensitive; compassionate;
kind; humane; merciful; pitiful.


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