tender

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛn.də(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛn.dɚ/
• (NYC) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛn.də/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: ten‧der
• Homophone: tinder (pin-pen merger)

Borrowed from Old French tendre, from Latin tener, tenerum (“soft, delicate”).

tender (comparative tenderer, superlative tenderest)

1. Sensitive or painful to the touch.
   • 1597, William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well, 3,2:

     […] poore Lord, is't I
     That chaſe thee from thy Countrie, and expoſe
     Thoſe tender limbes of thine […]

   • 2006, Mike Myers (as the voice of the title character), Shrek (movie)

     Be careful: that area is tender.

2. Easily bruised or injured; not firm or hard; delicate.

   tender plants; tender flesh; tender fruit

3. Physically weak; not able to endure hardship.
   • Bible, Deuteronomy xxviii. 56

     the tender and delicate woman among you

4. (of food) Soft and easily chewed.
   • 2001, Joey Pantolino (character), The Matrix (movie)

     The Matrix is telling my brain this steak is tender, succulent, and juicy.

5. Sensible to impression and pain; easily pained.
   • L'Estrange

     Our bodies are not naturally more tender than our faces.

6. Fond, loving, gentle, sweet.

   Suzanne was such a tender mother to her children.

   • Bible, James v. 11

     The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

   • Shakespeare

     You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies, / Will never do him good.

   • Fuller

     I am choleric by my nature, and tender by my temper.

7. Young and inexperienced.
8. Adapted to excite feeling or sympathy; expressive of the softer passions; pathetic.

   tender expressions; tender expostulations; a tender strain

9. Apt to give pain; causing grief or pain; delicate.

   a tender subject

   • Francis Bacon

     Things that are tender and unpleasing.

10. (nautical) Heeling over too easily when under sail; said of a vessel.
11. (obsolete) Exciting kind concern; dear; precious.
    • Shakespeare

      I love Valentine, / Whose life's as tender to me as my soul!

12. (obsolete) Careful to keep inviolate, or not to injure; used with of.
    • Burke

      tender of property

    • Tillotson

      The civil authority should be tender of the honour of God and religion.

• (soft, yielding, delicate): nesh
• See also Thesaurus:affectionate

tender (countable and uncountable, plural tenders)

1. (obsolete) Care, kind concern, regard.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iv], page 72, column 1:

     Stay, and breath awhile. / Thou haſt redeem'd thy loſt opinion / And ſhew'd thou makeſt ſome tender of my life / In this faire reſcue thou haſt brought to mee.

2. The inner flight muscle (pectoralis minor) of poultry.

tender (third-person singular simple present tenders, present participle tendering, simple past and past participle tendered)

1. (now rare) To make tender or delicate; to weaken.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):

     , vol.I, New York, 2001, p.233:

     To such as are wealthy, live plenteously, at ease, […] these viands are to be forborne, if they be inclined to, or suspect melancholy, as they tender their healths […].

   • c. 1947, Putnam Fadeless Dyes [flyer packaged with granulated dye]:

     Putnam Fadeless Dyes will not injure any material. Boiling water does tender some materials. […] Also, silk fibers are very tender when wet and care should be take not to boil them too vigorously.

2. To feel tenderly towards; to regard fondly.
   • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones,

     The angrie king hath banished me the court:

     And therefore as thou louest and tendrest me,

     Be thou my aduocate vnto these peeres.

   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 1 (First Folio edition):

     And ſo good Capulet, which name I tender

     As dearely as my owne, be ſatisfied.

From tend +‎ -er.

tender (plural tenders)

1. (obsolete) Someone who tends or waits on someone.
2. (rail transport) A railroad car towed behind a steam engine to carry fuel and water.
   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter XII, p. 201,

     Half the coal was out of the tender, half the fire out of the box, half the trucks were off the track, so violent was the stopping.

3. (nautical) A naval ship that functions as a mobile base for other ships.

   submarine tender

   destroyer tender

4. (nautical) A smaller boat used for transportation between a large ship and the shore.
   • 2015 April 1, Teresa Machan, “Queen Elizabeth passenger dies boarding a cruise ship tender [print version: Queen Elizabeth passenger dies after boarding mishap, 4 April 2015, p. T5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Travel)‎, archived from the original on 13 April 2015:

     A passenger on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth died this week following an accident while boarding from a tender (the small boats that carry passengers from ship to shore or port when the cruise ship anchors at sea). […] Gangway ramps can, on occasion, break free of either the ship or the tender, causing passengers or crew to fall into the sea.

• (smaller boat): dinghy

• (one who tends): bartender
• budtender
• (smaller boat used for transportation, naval ship that functions as a mobile base): tenderman

tender (third-person singular simple present tenders, present participle tendering, simple past and past participle tendered)

1. To work on a tender.
   • 1998, Dana Stabenow, Killing Grounds, →ISBN, page 103:

     Meantime, I'll dig up what I can, but if they start fishing again, I start tendering.

Borrowed from Middle French tendre (“stretch out”).

tender (plural tenders)

1. 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

2. (law) A formal offer to buy or sell something.

   We will submit our tender to you within the week.

3. Any offer or proposal made for acceptance.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 2 Scene 3

     [...] if she should make tender of her love, 'tis very possible he'll scorn it; for the man,—as you know all,—hath a contemptible spirit.

• legal tender
• put out to tender
• put out for tender

tender (third-person singular simple present tenders, present participle tendering, simple past and past participle tendered)

1. (formal) To offer, to give.

   to tender one’s resignation

   • Shakespeare

     You see how all conditions, how all minds, […] tender down / Their services to Lord Timon.

   • 1864 November 21, Abraham Lincoln (signed) or John Hay, letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston

     I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

2. to offer a payment, as at sales or auctions.

• offer

• tenderable
• tender something out

• enter'd, entred, rented, tendre

Borrowed from English tender.

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: ten‧der

tender m (plural tenders, diminutive tendertje n)

1. (finance) tender
2. (rail transport) coal-car

• (finance) aanbesteding

tender

1. Apocopic form of tendere

tender

1. Alternative form of tinder

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛn.dɛr/

• Audio

  (file)

tender m inan

1. tender (a railroad car towed behind a steam engine to carry fuel)

From Latin tendere, present active infinitive of tendō, from Proto-Italic *tendō, from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch, draw”).

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /tẽˈdeɾ/

tender (first-person singular present indicative tendo, past participle tendido)

1. to tend
2. to trend

From Latin tendere, present active infinitive of tendō, from Proto-Italic *tendō, from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch, draw”).

• IPA^(key): /tenˈdeɾ/, [t̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]

tender (first-person singular present tiendo, first-person singular preterite tendí, past participle tendido)

1. (transitive) to spread, to stretch out
2. (transitive) to lay (cable)
3. (transitive) to make (a bed)
4. (transitive) to hang up (clothes)
5. (transitive) to build (a bridge across an expanse)
6. (transitive) to extend (the hand)
7. (transitive) to floor (with a punch), to stretch out
8. (transitive) to cast (a net)
9. (transitive) to set (a trap)
10. (transitive) to coat (with plaster)
11. (intransitive) to tend to, to have a tendency
12. (reflexive) to lay oneself down

• Rule: e becomes ie in stressed syllables.

• tenderse
• tendedero
• tendedor