2. 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.
3. 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.
TENDER
Ten"der, a. [Compar. Tenderer; superl. Tenderest.] Etym: [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.