Also 6–8 tendre. [a. F. tendre to hold out, offer (11th c. in Godef., Compl.):—L. tendĕre to stretch, hold forth. (The retention of the ending of the French infinitive is unusual, but cf. RENDER v.)]
To offer or present formally for acceptance.
1. trans. Law. To offer or advance (a plea, issue, averment; evidence, etc.) in due and formal terms; spec. to offer (money, etc.) in discharge of a debt or liability, esp. in exact fulfilment of the requirements of the law and of the obligation.
1542–3. Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII., c. 2 § 2. If … the saide Collectoures … tendre paiement of all suche money … within the saide three monethes.
1544. trans. Littleton’s Tenures (1574), 22 b. The Lorde maye tender a conuenient mariage wythout disperagyng of such an heire female.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., s.v., To tender his law of non Summons … is to offer himselfe ready to make his law, whereby to prooue that he was not summoned.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XXII. 302. If ten or twenty times so much, as friends would rate thy price, Were tendered here.
1621. Elsing, Debates Ho. Lords (Camden), 97. Sr John Bennett was ready to tender his apperaunce.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), To Tender an Averment (in Law), to offer a Proof or Evidence in Court.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 120. In all courts of judgment the burden of the proof lies upon him who tenders the issue.
1848. Wharton, Law Lex., s.v., No copper coin can be tendered when the debt is such an amount that it can be paid in silver or gold.
1885. Law Times Rep., LIII. 51/2. Evidence was … tendered on behalf of the appellant to prove the construction of the furnace.
† b. Tender down: to lay down (money) in payment: cf. pay down. Also transf. Obs. rare.
1602. Heywood, Wom. Kilde, Wks. 1874, II. 108. Sir I accept it [money],… Come gentlemen, and see it tendred downe.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. iv. 180. Had he twentie heads to tender downe On twentie bloodie blockes, hee’ld yeeld them vp. Ibid. (1607), Timon, I. i. 54. You see how all Conditions … tender downe Their seruices to Lord Timon.
2. gen. To present (anything) for approval and acceptance; to offer, proffer.
1587. Harrison, England, II. xxii. (1877), I. 340. Then doo they tender licences, and offer large dispensations vnto him.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. iii. 41. My gracious Lord, I tender you my seruice.
1607. Dekker & Webster, Hist. Sir T. Wyatt, Wks. 1873, III. 110. Who was it yonder, that tendered vp his life To natures death?
1635. A. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1869), 149. All tendred their respects.
1713. Addison, Ct. Tariff, ¶ 21. As he tendered his ears.
1786. trans. Beckford’s Vathek (1868), 45. The governor … tendered every kind of refreshment.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 101. Several Aldermen, who … loved neither Popery nor martial law, tendered their resignations.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xii. She tendered not even a remonstrance.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxv. 15. Yet mid such desolation a verse I tender.
fig. 1588. Shaks., L. L. L., I. i. 244. As Iewels in Christall … tendring their own worth from whence they were glast.
b. To tender an oath, to offer or present an oath to a person, that he may take it; to put it to anyone to take an oath. (Rarely to take the oath: quot. 1838.)
1562. Act 5 Eliz., c. 1 § 6. To tender or minister the Othe aforesayd, to every … Ecclesiasticall person.
1710. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), II. 355. The Oaths are also order’d to be tender’d to them.
1838. Prescott, Ferd. & Is. (1846), I. v. 222. The principal grandees … soon presented themselves from all quarters, in order to tender the customary oaths of allegiance.
1871. Morley, Crit. Misc., Ser. I. J. De Maistre (1878), 107. The authorities vainly tendered him the oath.
† c. To offer to do something. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Maxims St. (1651), 31. Especially if it tender to take from them their commodities.
3. [from TENDER sb.2 3.] intr. To offer by tender for a proposed contract, or the like.
1855. Pall Mall G., 12 Oct., 5. Cases … in which the grocery supply … is regulated by friendship [with] some particular grocer—a condition under which open tendering becomes altogether a farce.
1910. Times, 9 Feb., 4. Seven firms tendered in competition…, the tenderers all sat at a table.
Hence Tendered ppl. a.; Tendering vbl. sb.
1613. T. Godwin, Rom. Antiq. (1658), 112. A certain ticket or token … at the tendring whereof … certain doles and measures of corn were given.
a. 1677. Barrow, Wks. (1686), III. xxxvi. 404. His tendering upon so fair and easie terms an endless life in perfect joy and bliss.
1883. Pall Mall G., 12 May, 4/1. Mdlle. Jeanne receives the tendered homage with the condescension of well-acknowledged desert.
