TEN 
889 
TEN 
tendency towards God. Bp. Taylor. —Direction or course 
toward any inference or result; drift.—These opinions are 
of so little moment, that, like motes in the sun, their ten¬ 
dencies are little noticed. Locke. 
TE'NDER, adj. [tendre, Fr.] Soft; easily impressed or 
injured; not firm; not hard.—The earth brought forth 
the tender grass. Milton. —Sensible; easily pained; soon 
sore. 
Unneath may she endure the flinty street. 
To tread them with her tender feeling feet. Shakspeare. 
Effeminate; emasculate; delicate. —When Cyrus had 
overcome the Lydians, that were a warlike nation, and 
devised to bring them to a more peaceable life, instead of 
their short warlike coat he clothed themin long garments, 
like women ; and instead of their warlike music, appointed 
to them certain lascivious lays, by which their minds were 
so mollified and abated, that they forgot their former fierce¬ 
ness, and became most tender and effeminate. Spenser .— 
Exciting kind concern. 
I love Valentine; 
His life’s as tender to me as my soul. Shakspeare. 
Compassionate; anxious for another’s good.—This not 
mistrust but tender love enjoins. Milton. —Susceptible of 
soft passions. 
Your tears a heart of flint 
Might tender make, yet nought 
Herein they will prevail. Spenser. 
Amorous; lascivious. 
What mad lover ever died 
To gain a soft and gentle bride ? 
Or for a lady tender hearted. 
In purling streams or hemp departed ? Hudibras # 
Expressive of the softer passions. 
The tender accent of a woman’s cry 
Will pass unheard, will unregarded die. Prior. 
Careful not to hurt: with of. —As I have been tender of 
every particular person’s reputation, so I have taken care not 
to give offence. Addison. —Gentle; mild; unwilling to 
pain. 
You, that are thus so tender o’er his follies, 
Will never do him good. Shakspeare. 
Apt to give pain.—In things that are tender and un¬ 
pleasing, break the ice by some whose words are of less 
weight, and reserve the more weighty voice to come in as by 
chance. Bacon. —Young; weak: as, tender age. —When 
yet he was but tender bodied, a mother should not sell him. 
Shakspeare. 
To TE'NDER, v. a. To regard with kindness. Not 
now in use. 
I thank you, madam, that you tender her: 
Poor gentlewoman, my master wrongs her much. 
Shakspeare. 
To render susceptible of soft passions: a colloquial ex¬ 
pression in some parts of England. 
To TE'NDER, v. a. [tendre, Fr.] To offer; to exhibit; 
to propose to acceptance. 
I crave no more than what your highness offer’d ; 
Nor will you tender less. Shakspeare. 
To hold; to esteem. 
Tender yourself more dearly; 
Or not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, . 
Wringing it thus, you’ll tender me a fool. Shakspeare. 
TE'NDER, s. Offer; proposal to acceptance. 
Then to have a wretched puling fool, 
A whining mammet, in her fortune’s tender. 
To answer I’ll not wed. Shakspeare. 
Regard; kind concern. Not used. 
Thou hast shew’d thou mak’st some tender of my life. 
In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me. Shakspeare. 
Vox.. XXIII. No. 1615. 
A small ship attending on a larger. 
TENDER-HEARTED, adj. Of a soft compassionate 
disposition.—Be ye kind to one another, tender-hearted. 
Eph. 
TENDERHEARTEDNESS, s. A compassionate dis- 
dosition. Sherwood. 
TE'NDERLING, s. The first horns of a deer. A fond¬ 
ling ; one who is made soft by too much kindness.—Our 
tenderlings complain of rheums. Harrison. 
TENDERLY, adv. In a tender manner; mildly; gent¬ 
ly ; softly; kindly; without harshness. 
She embrac’d him, and for joy 
Tenderly wept. Milton. 
With a quick sense of pain.—[This] the chancellor took 
very heavily; and the lord Falkland, out of his friendship 
to him, more tenderly , and expostulated it with the king 
with some warmth. Ld. Clarendon. 
TE'NDERNESS, s. [tendresse, Fr.] The state of being 
tender; susceptibility of impressions ; not hardness.—Pied 
cattle are spotted in their tongues, the tenderness of the 
part receiving more easily alterations than other parts of the 
flesh. Bacon. —State of being easily hurt; soreness.— 
A quickness and tenderness of sight could not endure bright 
sunshine. Locke. —Susceptibility of the softer passions. 
Weep no more, lest I give cause 
To be suspected of more tenderness 
Than doth become a man. Shakspeare. 
Kind attention; anxiety for the good of another.—Having 
no children, she did, with singular care and tenderness, in¬ 
tend the education of Philip and Margaret. Bacon. — 
Scrupulousness; caution. 
My conscience first receiv’d a tenderness, 
Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches utter’d 
By th’ bishop of Bayon. Shakspeare. 
Cautious care.—There being implanted in every man’s 
nature a great tenderness of reputation, to be careless of it 
is looked on as a mark of a degenerate mind. Gov. of the 
Tongue. —Soft pathos of expression.—We must not expect 
to trace the flow of Waller, the landscape of Thomson, the 
fire of Dryden, the imagery of Shakspeare, the simplicity of 
Spenser, the courtliness of Prior, the humour of Swift, the 
wit of Cowley, the delicacy of Addison, the tenderness of 
Otway, and the invention, the spirit and the sublimity of 
Milton, in any single writer. Shenstone. 
TENDINOUS, adj. [ tendinis, Latin.] Sinewy; con¬ 
taining tendons; consisting of tendons.—Nervous and ten¬ 
dinous parts have worse symptoms, and are harder of cure 
than fleshy ones. Wiseman. 
TE'NDON, s. [ tendo, Lat.] A sinew; a ligature by 
which the joints are moved.—A struma in her instep lay very 
hard and big amongst the tendons. Wisenian. 
TE'NDMENT, s. Act of tending; care. Not in use. 
Whether ill tendinent, or recureless pain, 
Procure his death. Bp. Hall. 
TENDRE, Mont, a petty town of the west of France, 
department of the Lower Charente, with 900 inhabitants; 7 
miles north-west of Montlieu. 
TENDRIL, s. [ tendrillon , Fr.] The clasp of a vine, or 
other climbing plant. 
In wanton ringlets wav’d, 
As the vine curls her tendrils; which imply’d 
Subjection. Milton. 
TENDRIL, adj. Clasping or climbing as a tendril. 
The curling growth 
Of tendril hops, that flaunt upon their poles. Dyer. 
TENDRING, a parish of England, in Essex; 5J miles 
south-south-east of Manningtree. Population 619. 
TENE'BRICOSE, or Te'nebrous, adj. [ tenebricosus, 
tenebrosus, Lat.] Dark ; gloomy. 
The most dark tenebrous night 
Is fain to flee and turn her back. 
10 R 
J. Hall. 
TENEBRIO,. 
