| 释义 |
tenderling|ˈtɛndəlɪŋ|
[See -ling1.]
1. A delicate person or creature; contemptuously, an effeminate person. Now rare.
1541Coverdale tr. Chr. State Matrimonye (1543) 86 b, The more gorgiouse tenderlynges they be, the better shall they please theyr heade the deuell. 1556Olde Antichrist 9 As for the talkes of some fyne fyngred tendrelinges, they are not worth the hearing. 1649W. Sclater Comm. Malachy (1650) 123 Those tenderlings unused to hardship, how doth a little affright them? 1802Beddoes Hygëia v. 29 Persons, accustomed to be buffetted by storms..much exceed the inactive fireside tenderling.
2. A person of tender years; a young child.
1587Holinshed Chron. III. 628/1 The verie tenderlings who might appeare to be toward and teachable. 1606Warner Alb. Eng. xiv. lxxxiii. 348 His Highness then a Tenderling. 18..G. Massey Babe Christabel, Poems (ed. 1889) 13 They [angels] snatched our little tenderling, So shyly opening into view.
†3. pl. The soft tops of a deer's horns when they are coming through. Obs.
1575Turberv. Venerie 129 The Noombles, handes and tenderlings, which are the soft toppes of his hornes when they are in bloude, doe pertayne to the Prime or chiefe personage. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 189/1. |