tender.
Sensitive or painful to the touch.
Meaning & usage
Sensitive or painful to the touch.
Easily bruised or injured; not firm or hard; delicate.
tender plants
tender flesh
Physically weak; not able to endure hardship.
Soft and easily chewed.
Sensible to impression and pain; easily pained.
Fond, loving, gentle, or sweet.
Suzanne was such a tender mother to her children.
Young and inexperienced.
I first had a girlfriend at the tender age of seven.
Adapted to excite feeling or sympathy; expressive of the softer passions; pathetic.
tender expressions; tender expostulations; a tender strain
Apt to give pain; causing grief or pain; delicate.
a tender subject
Heeling over too easily when under sail; said of a vessel.
Exciting kind concern; dear; precious.
Careful to keep inviolate, or not to injure; used with of.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English tender, tendere, from Anglo-Norman tendre, Old French tendre, from Latin tener, tenerum (“soft, delicate”).
Care, kind concern, regard.
The inner flight muscle (pectoralis minor) of poultry.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English tender, tendere, from Anglo-Norman tendre, Old French tendre, from Latin tener, tenerum (“soft, delicate”).
tenderly
Where this word comes from
From Middle English tender, tendur, tendir, tendre, from the adjective (see above).
To make tender or delicate; to weaken.
To feel tenderly towards; to regard fondly or with consideration.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English tendren, from the adjective (see above).
A specialized rail wagon hauled behind a steam engine to carry fuel and water.
A naval ship that functions as a mobile base for other ships.
submarine tender
destroyer tender
A smaller boat used for transportation between a large ship and the shore.
A member of a diving team who assists a diver during a dive but does not themselves go underwater.
Ellipsis of water tender (“firefighting apparatus”).
Someone who tends or waits on something or someone.
Where this word comes from
From tend + -er. Compare attender (“one who attends”).
To work on a tender.
Where this word comes from
From tend + -er. Compare attender (“one who attends”).
Anything which is offered, proffered, put forth or bid with the expectation of a response, answer, or reply.
You offer me the sword of my father, the very man whose bones, because of your perfidy, lie under the sod of Crecy. Aye, I'll surely take it, and just as surely you shall die with your tender through your heart!
A means of payment such as a check or cheque, cash or credit card.
Your credit card has been declined so you need to provide some other tender such as cash.
legal tender
A formal offer to buy or sell something.
We will submit our tender to you within the week.
Any offer or proposal made for acceptance.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English tendren, from Old French tendre (“stretch out”).
To offer, to give.
to tender one’s resignation
To offer a payment, as at sales or auctions; to bid.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English tendren, from Old French tendre (“stretch out”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.