Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use tender in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun, adverb

Tender means sensitive or painful to the touch. Example: “Suzanne was such a tender mother to her children.”

Examples of tender by meaning

adjectiveSensitive or painful to the touch.

  • Be careful: that area is tender.2006, Shrek, spoken by Shrek (Mike Myers)

adjectiveSoft and easily chewed.

  • The Matrix is telling my brain this steak is tender, succulent, and juicy.2001, Joey Pantolino (character), The Matrix (movie)

adjectiveFond, loving, gentle, or sweet.

  • Suzanne was such a tender mother to her children.

adjectiveYoung and inexperienced.

  • I first had a girlfriend at the tender age of seven.
  • And you of tender years can't know the fears that your elders grew by.1970, Graham Nash, “Teach Your Children”

adjectiveAdapted to excite feeling or sympathy; expressive of the softer passions; pathetic.

  • tender expressions; tender expostulations; a tender strain

adjectiveApt to give pain; causing grief or pain; delicate.

  • a tender subject

nounA specialized rail wagon hauled behind a steam engine to carry fuel and water.

  • Half the coal was out of the tender, half the fire out of the box, half the trucks were off the track, so violent was the stopping.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 201
  • Of locomotive interest was "an engine house for spare engines which was about 60 ft. × 51 ft.; on the outside of this was an immense turntable sufficient to turn the engine and tender at once."1944 July and August, Reginald B. Fellows, “The Failure of Bricklayers Arms as a Passenger Station—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 211

nounA smaller boat used for transportation between a large ship and the shore.

  • The transfer by tender of some 1,300 mail bags was effected smartly, and the "Ocean Mails Special" train was ready at 9.19 a.m.1944 July and August, Charles E. Lee, “The "City of Truro"”, in Railway Magazine, page 202

More sentences with tender

  • The deposit can be in any legal tender, even in gold.From the entry in
  • Jane tendered her resignation to the board of directors, but they refused.From the entry resignation
  • The company tendered a bid for a lucrative transport contract.From the entry bid
  • It is best to overwinter tender plants indoors.From the entry overwinter
  • The company has sold ore in private tenders to a small group of international and Chinese traders.2025 November 20, Alfred Cang, Katharine Gemmell, “China’s Giant Iron Ore Trader Widens Ban to Second BHP Ore”, in Bloomberg Markets. From the entry bhp
  • The albumens (whites) will be tender and slightly 'curdy', the yolks still soft and silky.2021, Darina Allen, “Eggs, Dairy [Soft-boiled Eggs]”, in How to Cook: The 100 Essential Recipes Everyone should Know, London: Kyle Books…. From the entry albumen
  • But Kenny's rabe stems are the stars on the plate, sweet and tender.2021, Peter Hoffman, What's Good?: A Memoir in Fourteen Ingredients. From the entry rabe
  • Extensive borehole information and tendered contract prices make these cost estimates much more plausible than earlier estimates.2020 May 6, Jim Steer, “Full Business Case offers fresh insight into HS2's prospects”, in Rail, page 51. From the entry borehole
  • The instruments (one's named Baby) evoke tender talk from macho musicians.2013, Kiley Armstrong, “"108 Rock Star Guitars" reveals battle-ax beauty”, in Associated Press. From the entry battle axe
  • Tender vine vegetables such as small heirloom tomatoes, zucchini (courgette) and eggplant (aubergine) are naturally skewerable.2013, Ross Dobson, Fired Up: Vegetarian. From the entry skewerable
  • The tender flesh of the pulchrous girl is torn by vile bonds infernal.2012, Nik Cohn, Need. From the entry flickersome
  • Broad-stroke storytelling, a critical eye turned towards class differences and tender moments between friends?2012 September 29, Maddie Crum, “'The Casual Vacancy': Harry Potter Fans Will Enjoy JK Rowling's New Book”, in HuffPost, archived from the…. From the entry Rowlingian
  • She could imagine the taste of the tender drumstick seeds on her tongue.2011, Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated by Deepika Phukan, The Story of Felanee (fiction), translation of original in Assamese. From the entry drumstick
  • The meat is extremely tender and delicate, making it a perfect choice for stir-fries.2011, Janice Cole, chapter IC, in Chicken and Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading with 125 Recipes, page 152. From the entry chicken tender
  • The value of fiat money is determined by legal means (legal tender laws).2008 November, Alex Marchand, “What is Money?”, in Dissolving Dollars: Exposing the Debt-based Insanity behind Modern Money, [S.l.]: 451°…. From the entry bitcoin
  • Often called yardlong bean in English, these green to pale-green pods are tender, stringless, succulent, and sweet.2006, National Research Council, “Long Bean (Vigna unguiculata)”, in Lost Crops of Africa, volume II (Vegetables), Washington, D.C.…. From the entry pencil-thin
  • Be a tender warrior as we fight for what is right.2003 December 19, Ed Brady, “He’s celebrating ‘CHRIST-mas,’ not ‘SANTA-mas’”, in The Boscobel Dial, volume 131, number 52, Boscobel, Wis.…. From the entry Santa-mas
  • Pound cakes, butter cakes with a tender fine crumb, are English in origin.2002, Greg Patent, Baking in America, page 159. From the entry pound cake
  • With feelings as keen and as tender As your proud city ladies remember — Mr.2000, James G. Hepburn, A Book of Scattered Leaves: Poetry of Poverty in Broadside Ballads, →ISBN. From the entry needle girl
  • Its filling of apples was tender and sweet, and the drizzle of caramel rum sauce added sophistication.1999 November 21, Catherine Jones, “Restaurants: Palate and Palette”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company…. From the entry drizzle
  • A national currency, the Tajik rubl, will become the sole legal tender inside the country.1995, Daily Report: Central Eurasia, numbers 92–98, page 92. From the entry rubl
  • Go to sleep, my darling boy, while mother rockabyes you with her tender hand.1995, Jewish Currents, page 18. From the entry rockabye
  • The dough can be yeasty with a thick crust, many-layered and flaky, or tender and cakelike.1993, Darra Goldstein, “Breads and Grains”, in The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia, New…. From the entry khachapuri
  • Civil Engineering: The engineering workstream developed the detailed design and tender documents for the airport site formation.1992, American Society of Civil Engineers, International Air Transportation: A New International Airport: Proceedings of the 22nd…. From the entry workstream
  • A bavarese should not be fluffy, but a tender though firm mold.1982, Giuliano Bugialli's Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking, page 444. From the entry bavarese
  • The following recipe gives very tender kotlety that may be served when entertaining guests.1977, Savella Stechishin, “Breaded Veal Kotlety”, in Traditional Ukrainian Cookery, 9th edition, Winnipeg, Man.: Trident Press Ltd.…. From the entry kotleta
  • His mind was on that bepanted rear-end and its tender verso.1973, Richard [Martin] Stern, Other Men’s Daughters, New York, N.Y.: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., page 65. From the entry bepanted
  • The superficial temporal artery (or arteries) may become exquisitely tender to the touch and visibly indurated.1970, Oliver Sacks, chapter 1, in Migraine, London: Picador, published 1995, page 15. From the entry indurate
  • Many of them now have the semi-elliptical, frame-less tenders taken from scrapped Kriegsloks of Type "52".1960 September, P. Ransome-Wallis, “Modern motive power of the German Federal Railway: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 553. From the entry semi-elliptical
  • A very flat bottom, with too many small blisters, usually goes with a very tender, flat cracker.1957, Ralph Bohn, Biscuit and Cracker Production, American Trade Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 102. From the entry flat cracker

Meaning of tender

  1. adjective Sensitive or painful to the touch.
  2. adjective Easily bruised or injured; not firm or hard; delicate.
  3. adjective Physically weak; not able to endure hardship.

Full definition of tender

Questions about tender in a sentence

How do you use tender in a sentence?
Tender is used as an adjective, noun and adverb. For example: “Suzanne was such a tender mother to her children.”
What is a short sentence with tender?
“a tender subject”
What does tender mean?
Tender means sensitive or painful to the touch.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tender (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use tender in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/tender. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.