TEND'ER, n. [from tend.] One that attends or takes care of; a nurse.

1. Soft; easily impressed, broken, bruised, or injured; not firm or hard; as, tender plants; tender flesh; tender grapes. Deut. xxxii. Cant. ii.
2. Very sensible to impression and pain; easily pained. Our bodies are not naturally more tender than our faces. L'Estrange.
3. Delicate; effeminate; not hardy or able to endure hardship. The tender and delicate woman among you. Deut. xxviii.
4. Weak; feeble; as, tender age. Gen. xxxiii.
5. Young and carefully educated. Prov. iv.
6. Susceptible of the softer passions, as love, compassion, kindness; compassionate; pitiful; easily affected by the distresses of another, or anxious for another's good; as, the tender kindness of the church; a tender heart.
7. Compassionate; easily excited to pity, forgiveness, or favor. The Lord is pitiful, and of tender mercy. James v. Luke i.
8. Exciting kind concern. I love Valentine; / His life's as tender to me as his soul. Shak.
9. Expressive of the softer passions; as, a tender strain.
10. Careful to save inviolate, or not to injure; with of. Be tender of your neighbor's reputation. The civil authority should be tender of the honor of God and religion. Tillotson.
11. Gentle; mild; unwilling to pain. You that are so tender o'er his follies, / Will never do him good. Shak.
12. Apt to give pain; as, that is a tender subject; things that are tender and unpleasing. Bacon.
13. Adapted to excite feeling or sympathy; pathetic; as, tender expressions; tender expostulations.

1. One that attends or takes care of; a nurse.
2. A small vessel employed to attend a larger one for supplying her with provisions and other stores, or to convey intelligence and the like. Mar. Dict.
3. [Fr. tendre, to reach.] In law, an offer, either of money to pay a debt, or of service to be performed, in order to save a penalty or forfeiture, which would be incurred by non-payment or non-performance; as, the tender of rent due, or of the amount of a note or bond with interest. To constitute a legal tender, such money must be offered as the law prescribes; the offer of bank notes is not a legal tender. So also the tender must be at the time and place where the rent or debt ought to be paid, and it must be to the full amount due. There is also a tender of issue in pleadings, a tender of an oath, &c.
4. Any offer for acceptance. The gentleman made me a tender of his services.
5. The thing offered. This money is not a legal tender.
6. Regard; kind concern. [Not in use.] Shak.

1. To offer in words; or to exhibit or present for acceptance. All conditions, all minds tender down / Their service to lord Tinion. Shak.
2. To hold; to esteem. Tender yourself more dearly. [Not in use.] Shak.
3. To offer in payment or satisfaction of a demand, for saving a penalty or forfeiture; as, to tender the amount of rent or debt.

1. One who tends; one who takes care of any person or thing; a nurse.
2. To offer in payment or satisfaction of a demand, in order to save a penalty or forfeiture] as, to tender the amount of rent or debt.
3. An offer, either of money to pay a debt, or of service to be performed, in order to save a penalty or forfeiture, which would be incurred by nonpayment or nonperformance; as, the tender of rent due, or of the amount of a note, with interest.
   
   

   * To constitute a legal tender, such money must be offered as the law prescribes. So also the tender must be at the time and place where the rent or debt ought to be paid, and it must be to the full amount due.

4. Easily impressed, broken, bruised, or injured; not firm or hard; delicate; as, tender plants; tender flesh; tender fruit.
5. Regard; care; kind concern.
   
   
   [Obs.] Shak.
6. To have a care of; to be tender toward; hence, to regard; to esteem; to value.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   For first, next after life, he tendered her good. Spenser.

   Tender yourself more dearly. Shak.

   To see a prince in want would move a miser's charity. Our western princes tendered his case, which they counted might be their own. Fuller.

7. A vessel employed to attend other vessels, to supply them with provisions and other stores, to convey intelligence, or the like.
8. To offer in words; to present for acceptance.
   
   

   You see how all conditions, how all minds, . . . tender down
   Their services to Lord Timon. Shak.

9. Any offer or proposal made for acceptance; as, a tender of a loan, of service, or of friendship; a tender of a bid for a contract.
   
   

   A free, unlimited tender of the gospel. South.

10. Sensible to impression and pain; easily pained.
    
    

    Our bodies are not naturally more tender than our faces. L'Estrange.

11. A car attached to a locomotive, for carrying a supply of fuel and water.
12. The thing offered; especially, money offered in payment of an obligation.
    
    
    Shak.

    Legal tender. See under Legal. -- Tender of issue (Law), a form of words in a pleading, by which a party offers to refer the question raised upon it to the appropriate mode of decision. Burrill.

13. Physically weak; not hardly or able to endure hardship; immature; effeminate.
    
    

    The tender and delicate woman among you. Deut. xxviii. 56.

14. Susceptible of the softer passions, as love, compassion, kindness; compassionate; pitiful; anxious for another's good; easily excited to pity, forgiveness, or favor; sympathetic.
    
    

    The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James v. 11.

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

15. Exciting kind concern; dear; precious.
    
    

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

16. Careful to save inviolate, or not to injure; -- with of.
    
    
    "Tender of property." Burke.

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

17. Unwilling to cause pain; gentle; mild.
    
    

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

18. Adapted to excite feeling or sympathy; expressive of the softer passions; pathetic; as, tender expressions; tender expostulations; a tender strain.
19. Apt to give pain; causing grief or pain; delicate; as, a tender subject.
    
    
    "Things that are tender and unpleasing." Bacon.
20. Heeling over too easily when under sail; -- said of a vessel.
    
    

    * Tender is sometimes used in the formation of self- explaining compounds; as, tender-footed, tender-looking, tender-minded, tender-mouthed, and the like.

    Syn. -- Delicate; effeminate; soft; sensitive; compassionate; kind; humane; merciful; pitiful.