TEND • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Tend

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/tɛnd/ Listen

verb

Tend v. t. (O. Eng. Law) To make a tender of; to offer or tender. (Obs.)

Tend v. t. (past & past part. tended; pres. part. tending)

To accompany as an assistant or protector; to care for the wants of; to look after; to watch; to guard; as, shepherds tend their flocks. "And flaming ministers to watch and tend Their earthly charge." "There 's not a sparrow or a wren, There 's not a blade of autumn grain, Which the four seasons do not tend And tides of life and increase lend."

To be attentive to; to note carefully; to attend to. "Being to descend A ladder much in height, I did not tend My way well down."

To tend a vessel (Naut.), to manage an anchored vessel when the tide turns, so that in swinging she shall not entangle the cable.

Tend v. i.

To wait, as attendants or servants; to serve; to attend; with on or upon. "Was he not companion with the riotous knights That tend upon my father?"

To await; to expect. (Obs.)

Tend v. i.

To move in a certain direction; usually with to or towards. "Two gentlemen tending towards that sight." "Thus will this latter, as the former world, Still tend from bad to worse." "The clouds above me to the white Alps tend."

To be directed, as to any end, object, or purpose; to aim; to have or give a leaning; to exert activity or influence; to serve as a means; to contribute; as, our petitions, if granted, might tend to our destruction. "The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want." "The laws of our religion tend to the universal happiness of mankind."

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Etymology of 'Tend'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tend" Quotes from Famous Books

... men, however small, are banded together as Socialist missionaries shows that the change is going on. As the working-classes, the real organic part of society, take in these ideas, hope will arise in them, and they will claim changes in society, many of which doubtless will not tend directly towards their emancipation, because they will be claimed without due knowledge of the one thing necessary to claim, EQUALITY OF CONDITION; but which indirectly will help to break up our rotten sham society, while that claim for equality of condition ...

— Signs of Change • William Morris

... view exposed Thou wilt that we embrace, what must betide, Should any of the everlasting Gods Observe us, and declare it to the rest? 400 Never could I, arising, seek again, Thy mansion, so unseemly were the deed. But if thy inclinations that way tend, Thou hast a chamber; it is Vulcan's work, Our son's; he framed and fitted to its posts 405 The solid portal; thither let us his, And there repose, since such thy pleasure seems. To whom the cloud-assembler ...

— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer

... human beings have the gift of loving so. To love perfectly is a matter of genius; it may be worth while to depict other sorts of love, for it has infinite gradations and nuances. One of the grievous mistakes that the prophets and prophetesses of love make is that they tend to speak as if only some coldness and hardness of nature, which could be dispensed with at will or by effort, holds men and women back from the innermost relationship. It is the same mistake as that made by many preachers who speak as if the moral sense was equally developed in all, or required ...

— The Silent Isle • Arthur Christopher Benson

... sympathy which might have been aroused had he been confined in one of the casemates of Fort Warren, and put upon him an indelible badge of connection with the enemies of the country. The cautious action of the Confederates in regard to him did not tend to remove this: for it was very apparent that they really regarded him as a friend, and helped him on his way to Canada in the expectation that he would prove a thorn in Mr. Lincoln's side. The ...

— Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V1 • Jacob Dolson Cox

... system that has been abolished in nearly all civilised countries; a system that lends itself to all sorts of petty abuse; a system that no one pretends to defend. No greater single step in advance could be made in the government of Alaska, no measure could be enacted that would tend to bring about in greater degree respect for the law than the abolition of the unpaid magistracy and the setting up of a body of stipendiaries of character ...

— Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled - A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska • Hudson Stuck

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