a. Now rare. Also 4–7 -ant, 6 -aunt. [a. OF. tendant, pr. pple. of tendre to stretch, to proceed: see TEND v.2] Tending, having a tendency (to or towards some end). Obs. before 18th c.; revived late in 19th.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, iv. 9. It is tendant in til lastandnes and vnchaungeabile ioy.
1512. Helyas, in Thoms, Prose Rom. (1823), III. 92. Tendaunt to the ende to take and holde in his hande the said duchy.
1657. Divine Lover, 14. Wee … shal remayne vnable as not tendant towards our foresaid end.
1900. Stoddard, Evol. Eng. Novel, 103. The historical novel is magnetized history in which every fact is quiveringly tendent toward some focal pole of unity.
