Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An offer for acceptance.
  • noun Specifically In law, an offer of money or any other thing in satisfaction of a debt or liability; especially, the production and offer to pay or deliver the very thing requirable by a contract.
  • noun An offer in writing made by one party to another to execute some specified work or to supply certain specified articles at a certain sum or rate, or to purchase something at a specified price.
  • noun Something tendered or offered.
  • To offer; make offer of; present for acceptance: as, to tender one a complimentary dinner; to tender one's resignation.
  • To offer in payment or satisfaction of some demand or obligation: as, to tender the (exact) amount of rent due.
  • To show; present to view.
  • To make a tender or offer; especially, to offer to supply certain commodities for a certain period at rates and under conditions specified, or to execute certain work: as, to tender for the dredging of a harbor.
  • noun One who tends; one who attends to, supervises, or takes care of something; a nurse: as, a machine-tender; a bartender.
  • noun Nautical, a vessel employed to attend a larger one for supplying her with provisions and other stores, or to convey intelligence, orders, etc.
  • noun A boat or ship accompanying fishing- or whaling-vessels; a lighter.
  • noun In railroading, a carriage attached to the locomotive, for carrying the fuel, water, etc. See cuts under passenger-engine and snow-plow.
  • noun A small reservoir attached to a mop or scrubber, to hold a supply of water. The flow is controlled by a valve operated by a spring.
  • Thin; slender; attenuated; fine: literally or figuratively.
  • Of fine or delicate quality; delicate; fine; soft: as, a tender glow of color.
  • Soft; thin; watery.
  • Delicate to the touch, or yielding readily to the action of a cutting instrument or to a blow; not tough or hard; especially, soft and easily masticated: as, tender meat.
  • Soft; impressible; susceptible; sensitive; compassionate; easily touched, affected, or influenced: as, a tender heart.
  • Expressing sensitive feeling; expressing the gentle emotions, as love or pity, especially the former; kindly; loving; affectionate; fond.
  • Delicate in constitution, consistency, texture, etc.; fragile; easily injured, broken, or bruised.
  • Delicate as regards health; weakly.
  • Very sensitive to impression; very susceptible of any sensation or emotion; easily pained.
  • Not strong; not hardy; not able to endure hardship or rough treatment; delicate; weak.
  • Fresh; immature; feeble; young and inexperienced.
  • Precious; dear.
  • Careful; solicitous; considerate; watchful; concerned; unwilling to pain or injure; scrupulous: with of or over.
  • Delicate; ticklish; apt to give pain if inconsiderately or roughly dealt with or referred to; requiring careful handling so as not to annoy or give pain: as, a tender subject.
  • Quick; keen; sharp.
  • Of ships, apt to lean over under sail; tender-sided: same as crank, 1.
  • Yielding to a small force; sensitive.
  • noun A tender regard; fondness; affection; regard.
  • To regard or treat with compassion, solicitude, fondness, or care; cherish; hence, to hold dear; value; esteem.
  • To make tender, in any sense.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To have a care of; to be tender toward; hence, to regard; to esteem; to value.
  • noun obsolete Regard; care; kind concern.
  • noun One who tends; one who takes care of any person or thing; a nurse.
  • noun (Naut.) A vessel employed to attend other vessels, to supply them with provisions and other stores, to convey intelligence, or the like.
  • noun A car attached to a locomotive, for carrying a supply of fuel and water.
  • adjective Easily impressed, broken, bruised, or injured; not firm or hard; delicate.
  • adjective Sensible to impression and pain; easily pained.
  • adjective Physically weak; not hardly or able to endure hardship; immature; effeminate.
  • adjective Susceptible of the softer passions, as love, compassion, kindness; compassionate; pitiful; anxious for another's good; easily excited to pity, forgiveness, or favor; sympathetic.
  • adjective Exciting kind concern; dear; precious.
  • adjective Careful to save inviolate, or not to injure; -- with of.
  • adjective Unwilling to cause pain; gentle; mild.
  • adjective Adapted to excite feeling or sympathy; expressive of the softer passions; pathetic.
  • adjective Apt to give pain; causing grief or pain; delicate.
  • adjective (Naut.) Heeling over too easily when under sail; -- said of a vessel.
  • transitive verb (Law) To offer in payment or satisfaction of a demand, in order to save a penalty or forfeiture.
  • transitive verb To offer in words; to present for acceptance.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French tendre ("stretch out").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From tend +‎ -er.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French tendre, from Latin tener ("soft, delicate").

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Examples

  • The word that this singer uses is one that only appears in this place, and if we regard its etymology, there lies in it a very tender and beautiful expression of the warmth of the divine love, for it is probably connected with words in an allied language which mean the _bosom_ and a _tender embrace_, and so the picture that we have is of that great divine Lover folding 'the people' to His heart, as a mother might her child, and cherishing them in His bosom.

    Expositions of Holy Scripture Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VII Alexander Maclaren 1868

  • Seared or grilled, as they are here, the lamb cubes become what he called "tender little morsels."

    Lamb Spiedino 2011

  • Seared or grilled, as they are here, the lamb cubes become what he called "tender little morsels."

    Lamb Spiedino 2011

  • ` ` This craven, '' he thought, ` ` will lose the day in pure faintness and cowardice of heart, which he calls tender conscience.

    The Talisman 1894

  • They are what we call tender, you see, and in November they must be bent down close to the ground and covered with earth, or else every cane would be dead from frost by spring.

    Driven Back to Eden Edward Payson Roe 1863

  • I felt my mother’s hand on my shoulder and saw her face reflected in the window, her expression tender as she looked at the baby in my arms, her eyes shining as she kissed me and then the baby’s forehead; her secret face, the one she’s only ever shown to me.

    Certain Girls Jennifer Weiner 2008

  • I felt my mother’s hand on my shoulder and saw her face reflected in the window, her expression tender as she looked at the baby in my arms, her eyes shining as she kissed me and then the baby’s forehead; her secret face, the one she’s only ever shown to me.

    Certain Girls Jennifer Weiner 2008

  • I felt my mother’s hand on my shoulder and saw her face reflected in the window, her expression tender as she looked at the baby in my arms, her eyes shining as she kissed me and then the baby’s forehead; her secret face, the one she’s only ever shown to me.

    Certain Girls Jennifer Weiner 2008

  • DELHI: India's Reliance Industries Ltd has awarded its term tender to sell diesel to traders Trafigura, Kuwait's IP. and Africa-focused Galana as it prepares for a surge in supply later this Oil company Reliance Industries is planning to export low sulphur diesel to refinery at Jamnagar comes on stream later this year, P. Raghavendran, the company's refining China will cut diesel exports in May by 40 percent versus April volumes to a four-month low of

    WN.com - Business News 2009

  • Yet in tender restraint, they find a pure connection that will break your heart.

    Fern Siegel: Stage Door: Brief Encounter, The Pitmen Painters Fern Siegel 2010

Comments

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  • In bookbinding and rare/antique book business, a term used to describe a book whose binding is loosening. Compare to shaken.

    February 22, 2007

  • A boat for communication between ship and shore.

    November 3, 2007

  • See: request for tenders.

    June 19, 2009