Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The tenderest part of a loin of beef, pork, or similar cut of meat.
- n. A city district notorious for vice and graft.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. That part of the loin of beef which is tenderer than the rest, in consequence of the softness or fineness of the muscular fiber; the psoas muscle of the ox and some other animals used as meat; the fillet; the undercut. In the tenderloin steak, as usually cut, the bone left in is one lateral half of a lumbar vertebra, of which the long slender bone which separates the tenderloin from the rest of the meat is the transverse process. The tenderloin lies close to the backbone, on the ventral side.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A strip of tender flesh on either side of the vertebral column under the short ribs, in the hind quarter of beef and pork. It consists of the psoas muscles.
- n. In New York City, the region which is the center of the night life of fashionable amusement, including the majority of the theaters, etc., centering on Broadway. The term orig. designates the old twenty-ninth police precinct, in this region, which afforded the police great opportunities for profit through conniving at vice and lawbreaking, one captain being reported to have said on being transferred there that whereas he had been eating chuck steak he would now eat tenderlion. Hence, in some other cities, a district largely devoted to night amusement, or, sometimes, to vice.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the tender meat of the loin muscle on each side of the vertebral column
- n. a city district known for its vice and high crime rate
Etymologies
- Sense 2, after the Tenderloin, an area of New York City (from the easy income it once afforded corrupt policemen). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Start the next strip of bacon by overlapping on the end of the first piece and continuing until the tenderloin is completely covered.”
“Elly, tenderloin is so quick and easy to use - I like it because it stays moist and tender even though it isn't full of fat.”
“While the tenderloin is roasting, make the pilaf: Put the reserved onion, chorizo, and oil in a pan and heat.”
“In other words, pork tenderloin is a very low fat meat.”
“Gini (as I open the fridge to get some soda out): Are you sure that pork tenderloin is still good?”
“This is called the tenderloin in English and the blanc de volaille in French.”
“We out of the house longer than we'd intended on Sunday, so butterflying the tenderloin was a perfect solution.”
“The menu says center cut of beef tenderloin, which is basically the filet mignon.”
“The tenderloin is the small muscle that runs down the inside of the backbone.”
“Between the short and sirloin is the portion usually called the tenderloin, the name of which indicates its prevailing characteristic, the tenderness which makes it a much-to-be-desired cut in spite of its lack of juiciness and flavor as compared with other cuts.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tenderloin’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Words sung by: Belle and Sebastian
beguiling, herbaceous, peninsula, suffragette, damascan, hastening, berserk, overtime, leccy, bestow, swathe, arab strap and 193 more...
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Meat Parts: the Cuts, the Innards, an...
T-bone - Sounds good!
Shoulder - Alright.
Liver - Fine.
Sweetbread - Okay.
Gizzard - Pushing it.
Brains - What?!wing, wedge bone sirloin, veal, umbles, tri-tip, tripe, triangle steak, tournedo, top sirloin, top loin, tongue, thigh and 147 more...
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words-for-apocalipstick
all your words are belong to me.
sybaritic, cacography, scatterbrain, extravaganza, fenestra, kaleidophone, machination, mudpuppy, saturnalia, Bacchanalia, ersatz, fictile and 58 more...
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Meat
sausage, pepperoni, pork chop, ham, tongue, fricandeau, veal, tenderloin, mutton, boeuf, terefah, gammon and 33 more...
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Words I have to learn
exasperate, felony, weld, fraud, worksheet, ransom, rehearse, preliminary, offshore, parole, infamous, sieve and 436 more...
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What, another list?
ravishing, ravenous, pronk, brinksmanship, jaspe, mottle, chasm, testy, temperament, ponder, personally, phantom and 206 more...
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it's what's for dinner
cuts of beef
chuck, rib, brisket, shank, plate, flank, loin, sirloin, tenderloin, roand, chateaubriand, delmonico and 5 more...
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supermarket words
fructose, aisle, hydrogenated, artificial, ethnic, organic, new, healthy, heart, fresh, gum arabic, riboflavin and 18 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tenderloin.

oroboros District in San Francisco where the cops got such lucrative bribes they could afford steak for every meal. (via NPR's Says You) Jan 17, 2010
whichbe An abomination located in San Francisco. Oct 22, 2008
Prolagus San Francisco's calling us, the Giants and Mets will play
Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?
We hung about the stadium, we've got no place to stay
We hung about the tenderloin and tenderly you tell
About the saddest book you ever read
that always makes you cry
The statue's crying too and well he may.
(Piazza, New York catcher, by Belle and Sebastian) Aug 30, 2008