Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TEN'DER, a. [Fr. tendre; It. tenero; Port. tênro; Ir. and Gaelic, tin; W. tyner; L. tener; allied probably to thin, L. tenuis, W. tenau; Ar. وَدَنَ wadana, to be soft or thin. Class Dn, No. 12, and see No. 25.]

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.