- offer
- offer vb Offer, proffer, tender, present, prefer can all mean to lay, set, or put something before another for acceptance.Offer, the most common of these words, frequently implies a putting before one something which may be accepted or rejected{
there was a crown offered him: and being offered him, he put it by— Shak.
}{had he succeeded, he told me, he would have offered me the post of subeditor— Ellis
}{offer a suggestion
}{the dress department offers several new models this week
}{he offered $10,000 for the house
}{we must ask in the end what they have to offer in place of what they denounce— T. S. Eliot
}Proffer differs from offer chiefly in more consistently implying a putting or setting before one something that one is at liberty to accept or reject and in usually stressing voluntariness, spontaneity, or courtesy on the part of the agent{proffered his arm to a lady having difficulty in crossing a street
}{felt that it would be indelicate just then to ask for any information which Casaubon did not proffer— George Eliot
}{rejecting the proffered assistance of a couple of officious friends— Shaw
}{the flavor of social success is delicious, though it is scorned by those to whose lips the cup has not been proffered—L. P. Smith
}Tender was originally and still is a term in legal use meaning to offer something to the court or to a person concerned, according to the terms of the law, for formal acceptance or approval{tender a thousand dollars in full satisfaction of a debt
}{the defense will tender evidence to prove its contention that the defendant has a sound alibi
}{will purchase all shares of preferred tendered to it before the redemption date— Wall Street Jour.
}{tender the oath to a justice being sworn into office
}In general use tender differs from offer and proffer in carrying a stronger connotation of modesty, humility, or gentleness on the part of the one who makes the offer{my gracious lord, I tender you my service— Shak.
}{they are not judgments in name or form, but are expressed only as advice humbly tendered to Her Majesty— Hogg
}Tender, however, is the idiomatic or polite term in certain collocations{three of us have already tendered our resignations— Bretnor
}{this symposium is tendered to John Dewey as he enters the tenth decade of his life— Sidney Hook
}{tender one's congratulations
}Present (see also GIVE) carries a stronger implication of ceremonious exhibition or of outward show than any of the preceding terms; otherwise it often suggests little more than offer in the sense of to lay or put before one for consideration, selection, or approval or for one's use or pleasure{the butler presented the letter on a salver
}{the producer will present a new play this week
}{my last, least offering, I present thee now— Cowper
}{whether Proust has not intended ... for all his apparent deliquescent Romanticism, to present us with a realistic case history— Edmund Wilson
}{the legislation was presented in July. The debate did little to clarify the specific issues— Comstock
}{prefer an indictment
}{prefer a claim
}although common in writing up to late in the nineteenth century{he spake, and to her hand preferred the bowl— Pope
}{I don't prefer any claim to being the soul of romance— Dickens
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
