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Frail vs Tender - What's the difference?

frail | tender |

As adjectives the difference between frail and tender

is that frail is easily broken; mentally or physically fragile; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish; easily destroyed; not tenacious of life; weak; infirm while tender is sensitive or painful to the touch.

As nouns the difference between frail and tender

is that frail is a basket made of rushes, used chiefly for containing figs and raisins while tender is regard; care; kind concern.

As verbs the difference between frail and tender

is that frail is to play a stringed instrument, usually a banjo, by picking with the back of a fingernail while tender is to make tender or delicate; to weaken.

frail

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Easily broken; mentally or physically fragile; not firm or durable; liable to fail and perish; easily destroyed; not tenacious of life; weak; infirm.
  • Liable to fall from virtue or be led into sin; not strong against temptation; weak in resolution; unchaste.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A basket made of rushes, used chiefly for containing figs and raisins.
  • The quantity of raisins contained in a frail.
  • A rush for weaving baskets.
  • (dated, slang) A girl.
  • * 1931 , (Cab Calloway) / (Irving Mills), ‘Minnie the Moocher’:
  • She was the roughest, toughest frail , but Minnie had a heart as big as a whale.
  • * 1933 , , , edition 1, Book 2, Chapter XXII:
  • There were five people in the Quirinal bar after dinner, a high-class Italian frail who sat on a stool making persistent conversation against the bartender's bored: “Si ... Si ... Si,” a light, snobbish Egyptian who was lonely but chary of the woman, and the two Americans.
  • * 1939 , (Raymond Chandler), The Big Sleep , Penguin 2011, p. 148:
  • ‘She's pickin' 'em tonight, right on the nose,’ he said. ‘That tall black-headed frail .’
  • * 1941 , Preston Sturges, '', published in ''Five Screenplays , ISBN 0-520-05442-4, page 77:
  • Sullivan, the girl and the butler get to the ground. The girl wears a turtle-neck sweater, a cap slightly sideways, a torn coat, turned-up pants and sneakers.
    SULLIVAN Why don't you go back with the car... You look about as much like a boy as .
    THE GIRL All right, they'll think I'm your frail .

    References

    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To play a stringed instrument, usually a banjo, by picking with the back of a fingernail.
  • Anagrams

    *

    tender

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) tendre, from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Sensitive or painful to the touch.
  • * 1597 , , All's Well that Ends Well , 3,2:
  • * 2006 , Mike Myers (as the voice of the title character), Shrek (movie)
  • Be careful: that area is tender .
  • Easily bruised or injured; not firm or hard; delicate.
  • Physically weak; not able to endure hardship.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy xxviii. 56
  • the tender and delicate woman among you
  • (of food) Soft and easily chewed.
  • * 2001 , Joey Pantolino (character), The Matrix (movie)
  • The Matrix is telling my brain this steak is tender , succulent, and juicy.
  • Sensible to impression and pain; easily pained.
  • * L'Estrange
  • Our bodies are not naturally more tender than our faces.
  • Fond, loving, gentle, sweet.
  • * Bible, James v. 11
  • The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
  • * Shakespeare
  • You, that are thus so tender o'er his follies, / Will never do him good.
  • * Fuller
  • I am choleric by my nature, and tender by my temper.
  • Adapted to excite feeling or sympathy; expressive of the softer passions; pathetic.
  • Apt to give pain; causing grief or pain; delicate.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Things that are tender and unpleasing.
  • (nautical) Heeling over too easily when under sail; said of a vessel.
  • (obsolete) Exciting kind concern; dear; precious.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I love Valentine, / Whose life's as tender to me as my soul!
  • (obsolete) Careful to keep inviolate, or not to injure; used with of .
  • * Burke
  • tender of property
  • * Tillotson
  • The civil authority should be tender of the honour of God and religion.
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * chicken tender * frost-tender * tenderise, tenderize * tenderly * tenderness * tender loving care, TLC * tenderfoot

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make tender or delicate; to weaken.
  • *, vol.I, New York, 2001, p.233:
  • To such as are wealthy, live plenteously, at ease, […] these viands are to be forborne, if they be inclined to, or suspect melancholy, as they tender their healths […].
  • * Putnam Fadeless Dyes [flyer packaged with granulated dye]:
  • Putnam Fadeless Dyes will not injure any material. Boiling water does tender some materials. […] Also, silk fibers are very tender when wet and care should be take not to boil them too vigorously.
  • to feel tenderly towards; to regard fondly.
  • * 1597 , (William Shakespeare), (Romeo and Juliet) , 3,1 (First Folio edition):
  • And ?o good Capulet , which name I tender
    As dearely as my owne, be ?atisfied.

    Noun

  • (obsolete) regard; care; kind concern
  • *
  • Thou makest some tender of my life / In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.
  • The inner flight muscle (pectoralis minor) of poultry.
  • Etymology 2

    From .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Someone who tends or waits on someone.
  • (rail transport) A railroad car towed behind a steam engine to carry fuel and water.
  • (nautical) A naval ship that functions as a mobile base for other ships.
  • (nautical) A smaller boat used for transportation between a large ship and the shore.
  • Synonyms
    * (smaller boat) dinghy

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (formal) To offer, to give.
  • * Shakespeare
  • You see how all conditions, how all minds, tender down / Their services to Lord Timon.
  • * 1864 November 21, Abraham Lincoln (signed) or John Hay, letter to Mrs. Bixby in Boston
  • I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
  • to offer a payment, as at sales or auctions.
  • Synonyms
    * offer
    Derived terms
    * tenderable * to tender something out

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A means of payment such as a check or cheque, cash or credit card.
  • (legal) A formal offer to buy or sell something.
  • Any offer or proposal made for acceptance.
  • * 1599 ,
  • [...] if she should make tender of her love, 'tis very possible he'll scorn it; for the man,—as you know all,—hath a contemptible spirit.
    See also
    * legal tender * to put out to tender * to put out for tender

    Anagrams

    * ----