Literary notes about tending (AI summary)
The term "tending" in literature is employed in a variety of ways that enrich both literal and metaphorical language. In certain contexts, it conveys the act of care or maintenance, whether it is caring for a person or nurturing livestock, as when characters are shown looking after a weakened sister [1] or when a shepherd’s lad watches over his sheep [2]. In other cases, it suggests movement or progression toward a particular state, such as an idea gradually acquiring moral weight [3] or events moving inexorably toward a destined conclusion [4], [5]. Additionally, "tending" is often used to indicate that a process or quality is displaying a tendency in one direction, be it in nature, societal tendencies, or character actions [6], [7]. This multifaceted usage demonstrates how the word bridges the gap between concrete actions and abstract developments, adding layers of subtlety to literary discourse [8], [9].
- The Calenders and the Caliph looked at each other, and whispered together, unheard by Zobeida and Sadie, who were tending their fainting sister.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang - A shepherd’s lad was tending his sheep on the small [ Pg 83] mountains called Frennifach one fine morning in June.
— from British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions by Wirt Sikes - no antecedent feeling tending to morality.
— from The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant - On the route, however, another circumstance occurred tending to confirm the suspicion entertained.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - " I began to understand him—I saw the end towards which his extraordinary disclosure was now tending.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - Sounds are just one kind of stimulus to direct response, some having a soothing effect, others tending to make one jump, and so on.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - And the highest thoughts, when they become familiarized to us, are always tending to pass into the form of feeling.
— from The Republic by Plato - Looking at his face, I longed to know his exact opinions, and at last I put a question tending to elicit them.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - I have searched it through, and found nearly thirty passages, all tending to support the same theory.’
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
