tenderness

Definition

Quality, state or condition of being tender.

Etymology

From tender + -ness.

Example Sentences

• "He picked her up in his arms with great tenderness."
• "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."