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

Loving; tender. [Obs.] "A lovely kiss." Shak. Many a lovely look on them he cast. Chaucer.

Tender regard; mercy; favor. Ps. lxxxix. 33.

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

A little amorous poem, sometimes called a pastoral poem, containing some tender and delicate, though simple, thought. Whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal. Milton.

Belief in the coming of the Mahdi; fanatical devotion to the cause of the Mahdi or a pretender to that title. -- Mah"dist (#), n.

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.

Soft or tender by reason of ripeness; having a tender pulp; as, a mellow apple.

Hence: To be softened; to become tender, mild, or gentle; also, to be weakened or subdued, as by fear. My soul melteth for heaviness. Ps. cxix. 28. Melting with tenderness and kind compassion. Shak.

Tender; pitiful; weeping. [Obs.] Shak.

mouth; to withdraw the milk of. "Milking the kine." Gay. I have given suck, and know How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me. Shak.

The act of ministering; ministration; service. "With tender ministry." Thomson.

To soften by making moist; to make tender. It moistened not his executioner's heart with any pity. Fuller.

To soften; to make tender; to reduce the hardness, harshness, or asperity of; to qualify; as, to mollify the ground. With sweet science mollified their stubborn hearts. Spenser.

Of or pertaining to a mother; like, or suitable for, a mother; tender; maternal; as, motherly authority, love, or care. Hooker.

Any boastful or false pretender; a charlatan; a quack. Nothing so impossible in nature but mountebanks will undertake. Arbuthnot.

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.…

good-naturedly weak and effusive; weakly sentimental. She 's not mushy, but her heart is tender. G. Eliot.

Soft; tender; delicate. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]