Word.ws English Dictionary

tendre

tendre is the obsolete form of tender.

Meaning of tender

Adjective

tender (comparative tenderer, superlative tenderest)

  1. Sensitive or painful to the touch.
    • […]poore Lord, is't I
      That chaſe thee from thy Countrie, and expoſe
      Thoſe tender limbes of thine[…]c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. Easily bruised or injured; not firm or hard; delicate.
    • tender plants
  3. Physically weak; not able to endure hardship.
    • the tender and delicate woman among you1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 28:56
  4. Soft and easily chewed.
    • The Matrix is telling my brain this steak is tender, succulent, and juicy.2001, Joey Pantolino (character), The Matrix (movie)
  5. Sensible to impression and pain; easily pained.
    • Our Bodies are not naturally more Tender than our Faces.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
  6. Fond, loving, gentle, or sweet.
    • Suzanne was such a tender mother to her children.

See all 29 meanings of tender

Noun

tendre (plural tendres)

  1. (archaic) Tender feeling or fondness; affection.
    • You poor friendless creatures are always having some foolish tendre […]1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 15, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
    • So the athletic Magnolia instantly impounded the little lieutenant, and began to rally him, in the sort of slang she delighted in, with plenty of merriment and malice upon his tendre for Miss Chattesworth, and made the gallant young gentleman blush and occasionally smile, and bow a great deal, and...1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

Forms of tendre

Adjective
comparativemore tendre
superlativemost tendre
Verb
third-person singular presenttendres
present participletendring
past participletendred
pasttendred
Noun
pluraltendres

Words formed from tendre

Questions about tendre

What does tendre mean?
Tendre means tender feeling or fondness; affection.
What is tendre the obsolete form of?
Tendre is the obsolete form of tender.
What part of speech is tendre?
Tendre is a noun.
What is the plural of tendre?
The plural of tendre is tendres.

Words near tendre in the dictionary

  1. tendosynovium
  2. tendovaginitides
  3. tendovaginitis
  4. tendrac
  5. tendracs
  6. tendre
  7. tendred
  8. tendrely
  9. tendres
  10. tendresse
  11. tendries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tendre (page history and authors); tender (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “tendre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tendre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.