Search the Dictionary

Tenderness of look or mien; amorous pensiveness.

y of being lenient; mildness of temper or disposition; gentleness of treatment; softness; tenderness; clemency; -- opposed to severity and rigor. His exceeding lenity disposes us to be somewhat too severe. Macaulay.

h delights or commands admiration; preëminent kindness or devotion to another; affection; tenderness; as, the love of brothers and sisters. Of all the dearest bonds we prove Thou countest sons' and mothers' love Most sacred, most Thine own. Keble.

Void of love; void of tenderness or kindness. Milton. Shelton.

To play on a lute, or as on a lute. Knaves are men That lute and flute fantastic tenderness. Tennyson.

Mother; -- word of tenderness and familiarity. [Written also mama.] Tell tales papa and mamma. Swift.

Of or pertaining to a mother; becoming to a mother; motherly; as, maternal love; maternal tenderness.

eakened or subdued, as by fear. My soul melteth for heaviness. Ps. cxix. 28. Melting with tenderness and kind compassion. Shak.

To arouse the feelings or passions of; especially, to excite to tenderness or compassion; to touch pathetically; to excite, as an emotion. Shak. When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them. Matt. ix. 36. [The use of images] in orations and poetry is to move pity or terror. Felton.…

from possession won with arms. Milton. It was strange to him that a father should feel no tenderness at parting with an only son. A. Trollope.

appeals for sympathy or forgiveness; insensible to the distresses of others; destitute of tenderness; unrelenting; unyielding; unpitying; as, a prey to relentless despotism. For this the avenging power employs his darts,.. Thus will persist, relentless in his ire. Dryden. -- Re*lent"less*ly, adv. -- Re*lent"less*ness,…

Sorrow for the misery of another; pity; tenderness. [Poetic] "They weep for ruth." Chaucer. "Have ruth of the poor." Piers Plowman. To stir up gentle ruth, Both for her noble blood, and for her tender youth. Spenser.

state of being scruppulous; doubt; doubtfulness respecting decision or action; caution or tenderness from the far of doing wrong or ofending; nice regard to exactness and propierty; precision. The first sacrilege is looked on with horror; but when they have made the breach, their scrupulosity soon retires. Dr. H. More.…

roachful sense. A sentimental mind is rather prone to overwrought feeling and exaggerated tenderness. Whately.

Expressing gentleness, tenderness, or the like; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind; as, soft eyes. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Prov. xv. 1. A face with gladness overspread, Soft smiles, by human kindness bred. Wordsworth.

Having softness or tenderness of heart; susceptible of pity or other kindly affection; gentle; meek. -- Soft"-heart`ed*ness, n.

The quality or state of being sore; tenderness; painfull; as, the soreness of a wound; the soreness of an affliction.

ive; to become dull or inactive; as, commerce stagnates; business stagnates. Ready-witted tenderness . . . never stagnates in vain lamentations while there is any room for hope. Sir W. Scott.

one direction; especially, to pass the hand gently over by way of expressing kindness or tenderness; to caress; to soothe. He dried the falling drops, and, yet more kind, He stroked her cheeks. Dryden.

To reduce to tenderness; to melt; to soften; as, to subdue ferocity by tears.