[f. TENDER a. + -LY2.] In a tender manner; with tenderness.
1. With delicacy or softness of touch, action, or treatment; softly, gently.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., Prol. 171. And Zepherus and flora gentilly Yaf to the floures softe and tenderly.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxx. 135. Tendirly me touche.
1604. Shaks., Oth., I. iii. 407. The Moore … will as tenderly be led Ly’th’ Nose As Asses are.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 526, ¶ 3. I should be glad to have them handled a little tenderly.
1885. Athenæum, 23 May, 669/1. Sous Bois … is another tenderly painted, broad, and expressive piece.
† b. So as to be tender or soft. † c. In a slight or fragile manner. Obs.
1604. E. Grimstone, Hist. Siege Ostend, 220. Old shooes tenderly sodden.
1721. Bradley, Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat., 142. The Body of the Bee is divided into three Parts, very tenderly join’d together.
2. With tender feeling. a. With affection or compassion; lovingly, dearly, kindly; pityingly, mercifully, leniently.
13[?]. Cursor M., 17288 + 281. Oute-taken his moder þat loued him tenderly.
1465. Paston Lett., II. 200. I pray yow that ye will tenderly understond this letter.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. iii. 48. The which … My stooping dutie tenderly shall shew.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. I. 226. Rather than fail, they will defy That which they love most tenderly.
1681. Penn, Lett. to R. Turner, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. (1826), I. 212. Thy remembrance by severall notes, through the hands of J. Hall, I tenderly received.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 640. He will generally connive at it, or punish it very tenderly.
1891. E. Peacock, N. Brendon, I. 230. She looked at Basil tenderly.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 30 July, 7/2. A tenderly-worded message of condolence.
1920. W. M. Markoe, The Slave of the Negroes, i. 7. Raising the Negro’s head, he tenderly caresses him and puts to his lips a flask of wine.
† b. With kind or friendly consideration or attention; indulgently. (Cf. TENDER v.2 3.) Obs.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 371. Þerfore lordis schulden take hede fulle tendirly to þis voyce of criste.
1571. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 408. All which I beseech your honour tenderly to consider.
1594. West, 2nd Pt. Symbol., Chancerie, § 98. The premisses tenderly considered.
c. With tender emotion; with acute sensibility or sensitiveness.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 14308. Tenderli he wep, and said, ‘And quar haf yee his bode laid?’
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xi. 46. Petre grette full tenderly, when he had forsaken Criste.
1609. Daniel, Civ. Wars, VIII. lxxxii. The Lady Bona takes most tenderly To be so mockt.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Life (1759), I. 163. [This] the Chancellor took very heavily, and the Lord Falkland out of his Friendship to him, more tenderly.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), II. 320. Greece alone, you tell me, presents scenes and points of view so tenderly affecting.
3. With delicate nurture; softly, indulgently; effeminately; also, with the tenderness of youth.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of Law’s T., 171. Sent … Fro freendes þat so tendrely hire kepte.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 104. Þou hast be norysched tenderly.
1552. Huloet, Tenderlye, molliter, muliebriter.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 182. Polycletus made Diadumenon tenderly youthfull.
1848. Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 369. Such works … as tenderly-nurtured women shrink from.
4. Timidly, charily, cautiously. (Cf. 1.)
a. 1628. Preston, Breastpl. Love (1631), 149. When a man hath no ground to set his foote on, he will doe it tenderly and warily.
1822. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Detached Th. on Bks. The poor gentry … venturing tenderly, page after page.
