Ten·der, a. [Compar. Tenderer superl. Tenderest.]
 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.”
    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.”
 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.