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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tenderest

Tender \Ten"der\, a. [Compar. Tenderer; superl. Tenderest.] [F. tendre, L. tener; probably akin to tenuis thin. See Thin.]

  1. Easily impressed, broken, bruised, or injured; not firm or hard; delicate; as, tender plants; tender flesh; tender fruit.

  2. Sensible to impression and pain; easily pained.

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

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

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

  4. 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.

  5. Exciting kind concern; dear; precious.

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

  6. 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.

  7. Unwilling to cause pain; gentle; mild.

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

  8. Adapted to excite feeling or sympathy; expressive of the softer passions; pathetic; as, tender expressions; tender expostulations; a tender strain.

  9. Apt to give pain; causing grief or pain; delicate; as, a tender subject. ``Things that are tender and unpleasing.''
    --Bacon.

  10. (Naut.) Heeling over too easily when under sail; -- said of a vessel.

    Note: 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.

Wiktionary
tenderest

a. (en-superlative of: tender)

Usage examples of "tenderest".

The count took her in his arms, and caressing her in the tenderest manner begged her to do him this favour, not so much for the twenty-five Louis, as to convince me that he was above vulgar prejudices.

I was her face lighted up, and she asked me, in a voice of tenderest interest, if I had been ill.

Her daughter had become a charming girl, and our acquaintance was renewed in the tenderest manner.

I thought her advice dictated by the tenderest care, and I determined to benefit by it.

Square therefore embraced this opportunity of injuring Jones in the tenderest part, by giving a very bad turn to all these before-mentioned occurrences.

How delightful he was as he sat talking in the twilight in low and tender tones, with respectful pauses of listening, in which he looked as if he too had just made a discovery,--of an angel, to wit, to whom he could not help unbosoming his tenderest emotions, as to a being from another sphere!

What shall the unfortunate person do who has met with one of those disappointments, or been betrayed into one of those positions, which do violence to all the tenderest feelings, blighting the happiness of youth, and the prospects of after years?

Surely such persons, if they will not be thought mad, must own, either that they are incapable of tasting the sweets of the tenderest friendship, or that they sacrifice the greatest happiness of which they are capable to the vain, uncertain, and senseless laws of vulgar opinion, which owe as well their force as their foundation to folly.

Nor have I any doubt that you, whom I have heard to be the tenderest of mothers, will suffer any immoderate indulgence of grief to prevent you from discharging your duty to those poor infants, who now alone stand in need of your tenderness.

They preserve the purest and tenderest affection for each other, an affection daily encreased and confirmed by mutual endearments and mutual esteem.

They go far, far beyond my most sanguine expectations, and indeed are expressed with such peculiar warmth and kindness as to affect me in the tenderest manner.

I covered her with the tenderest kisses, and returning to my room, in the greatest gladness, I resigned myself to sleep.

I pity you, because you have inspired me with the tenderest feelings of friendship.

She wrote in answer that she would expect me to sup with her in her room, that she might give me the tenderest proofs of her gratitude.

I have done nothing to him directly, but by an inexcusable act of stupidity I have wounded his dear friend Manucci in his tenderest part.