tenderness

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Quality, state or condition of being tender.

   “He picked her up in his arms with great tenderness.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A tendency to express warm, compassionate feelings.

   “When the lovers were together, their cold indifference gave way to love and tenderness.”

   “I had known him jealous, suspicious; I had seen about him certain tendernesses, fitfulnesses—a softness which came like a warm air, and a ruth which passed like early dew, dried in the heat of his irritabilities: this was all I had seen.”

   “Love me, try to be understanding / Tenderness is all that I'm asking / Don't feel like I'm making conditions / I want to overcome my inhibitions”

   “YSL, as he is often called, is equally capable of casual, aristocratic cruelty and earthy, spontaneous tenderness, and when you study his face it can be hard to distinguish boredom from rapture.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A concern for the feelings or welfare of others.

   “When they saw the poor orphans, they were overwhelmed with tenderness for them.”

   “Everybody needs a little tenderness sometimes.”

   “Quiet people too, for I think that about this time a sort of remorseful tenderness comes over the bullies and the nagsters, so that they go about gently and deprecatingly, hoping by one day's record sweetness to outface the year's blusterings.”

4. (countable, uncountable)A pain or discomfort when an affected area is touched.

   “He noted her extreme tenderness when he touched the bruise on her thigh.”

   “Amies Oelschlager said in a statement that oral contraceptives that contain estrogen may cause side effects such as headaches, nausea, and breast tenderness.”