a. [UN-1 7.]
1. Not tender in dealing with others; ungentle, unkind. Also const. of.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. i. 108. So young, and so vntender? Ibid. (1611), Cymb., III. iv. 12. Why tender’st thou that Paper to me, with A looke vntender?
c. 1678. J. B., in Spirit of Popery (1680), 75. Is it reasonable … to be thus tender of a few men, and untender of the grand Concerns of … our Master?
c. 1710[?]. Congreve, Lament. Helen over Hector, 9. In all which time … Not one untender Word or look of Scorn, Which I too often have from others born.
1774. Beattie, Minstrel, II. xxxi. Let untender thoughts afar be driven.
1825. Lamb, Elia, II. Wedding. Is there not something untender … in the hurry which a beloved child is sometimes in to tear herself from the paternal stock.
1898. G. W. E. Russell, Collect. & Recoll., ii. 14. In those untender days he was considered too delicate to remain at a Public School.
† 2. Not having a tender conscience; lacking in religious susceptibility. Also transf. Obs.
a. 1658. Durham, Comm. Rev. (1660), 187. We will find, that many who have been untender, have had hand at this work.
1680. in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., XLV. 235. This wofull dreadfull defection in these two emenent men is to be lamented…. Among them Mr. Castairs elder is the most unsound and untender.
1730. T. Boston, Mem. (1899), 37. He, being both a weak and untender man, was unacceptable to the parish. Ibid., 136. The untender carriage of some ministers in Nithsdale.
1765. J. Brown, Chr. Jrnl., 262. Untender professors loudly bawl against the sins of others.
a. 1812. Maclean, Disc., Wks. 1848, VI. 195. By an untender walk guilt has accumulated upon the conscience.
3. Not immature.
1879. Bain, Educ. as Science, xii. 416. The effect produced on tender years will be submerged in the un-tender years that follow.
Hence Untenderness.
a. 1658. Durham, Comm. Rev. (1660), 181. There was much … unwatchfulnesse and untendernesse in both these respects before God.
1680. in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot., XLV. 248. An untenderness and sinfull love of life.
1724. E. Erskine, Serm., Wks. (1791), 122. If through untenderness ye provoke him to withdraw.
1883. Century Mag., 55. This education … he had never got.—Hence his untenderness.
