adverb

• 1With gentleness, kindness, and affection.

  ‘he spoke tenderly of his parents’

  More example sentences

  • ‘she tenderly kissed him’
  • ‘a tenderly funny and poignant love story’
  • ‘She answers yes, declares her love, and the two embrace tenderly.’
  • ‘Othello comes, with a light, to the sleeping Desdemona and kisses her tenderly, though convinced of her guilt.’
  • ‘Tenderly, he lifted the drink to his son's dry lips.’
  • ‘Her songs tenderly deal with love and loneliness.’
  • ‘The songs sound so tenderly personal at times, I experience guilt by listening.’

• 2In a way that is easy to cut or chew; softly.

  ‘a large piece of tenderly cooked meat’

  More example sentences

  • ‘tenderly textured and tasty, Brazil nuts are a source of selenium’
  • ‘I think I love it the most when it is tenderly cooked in a crock pot.’
  • ‘The duck was a large piece of tenderly cooked meat, but the sauce really was not very nice.’
  • ‘The lamb shank is served in a tenderly appealing stew.’
  • ‘Such usual suspects as tuna and paler yellowtail were good, as was a tenderly cooked shrimp.’
  • ‘The tenderly cooked potato is enrobed in crispy luminescent yellow dough.’