tenderling

From tender +‎ -ling.

tenderling (plural tenderlings)

1. (archaic) Someone made tender by too much kindness or lassitude; a fondling or softie.
   • 1586, William Harrison, The Description of England:

     Now […] have we many chimnies, and yet our tenderlings complain of rheums, catarrhs, and poses.

2. (zoology) One of the first antlers of a deer.

• (one made tender): nestle-cock, sissy, wuss; see also Thesaurus:milksop

• “tenderling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.