1
[ verb ] have a tendency or disposition to do or be something; be inclined

Examples

"She tends to be nervous before her lectures" "These dresses run small" "He inclined to corpulence"

Used in print

(The Times-Picayune, [New Orleans]...)

It is not as convenient as the old type toothbrush and the paste tends to shimmy of the bristles .

(Schubert Ogden, Christ Without Myth....)

However , even if the latent demand for demythologization is not nearly as widespread as we are claiming , at_least among the cultured elements of the population there tends to be an almost complete indifference to the church and its traditional message of sin and grace .

(High Fidelity, 11:10...)

Schnabel 's emphasis on structural clarity , his innate rhythmic vibrancy , and impetuous intensity all tend to stamp his reading as a symphonic one .

(Edward P. Lawton, "Northern Liberals and Southern...)

The race_problem has tended to obscure other , less emotional , issues which may fundamentally be even more divisive .

(Frank Oppenheimer, "Science and Fear-- A Discussion...)

In agriculture , for_example , despite the advances in biology , elaborate rituals tend to persist along with a continued sense of the imminence of some natural disaster .

2
[ verb ] exhibit an inclination or tendency

Synonyms

lean incline

Used in print

(The Atlanta Constitution,...)

The recent history of the Dominican_Republic is an almost classical study of the way in_which even a professedly benevolent dictatorship tends to become oppressive .

Since rococo music tends to be pretty and elegant above_all , it can seem rather vacuous to twentieth-century ears that have grown accustomed_to the stress and dissonances of composers from Beethoven to Boulez .

(The New York Times...)

Mr._Verreau began shakily , with a voice that tended toward an unpleasant whiteness when pushed beyond middle volume .

(Schuyler Cammann, "The Magic Square of Three in...)

Scholars made numbered sets of as_many things as possible in Nature , or assigned arbitrary numbers to individual things , in a fashion that seems to the modern scientific mind as downright nonsensical , and philosophical ideas based upon all this tended to stifle speculative thought in China for many centuries .

3
[ verb ] have care of or look after

Examples

"She tends to the children"

Used in print

(Ann Hebson, The Lattimer Legend....)

He tended the new colts Beau had sired .

Related terms

attend garden shepherd

4
[ verb ] manage or run

Examples

"tend a store"

Used in print

(Gene Caesar, Rifle for Rent....)

The small half-heartedly tended fields of men who 'd spent more time rustling cattle than farming were lying fallow .

Related terms

take_care stoke

*