tend toward

tend toward (something)

To have a tendency or be inclined or disposed to display some behavior or characteristic. The author's work tends toward the harsh, gloomy realities of the world, but she always maintains a vein of persistent hopefulness in all her stories. His fiscal policies tend toward conservatism, while his social policies tend toward liberalism.
See also: tend, toward
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

tend toward something

to have a tendency to display a certain characteristic. Roger tends toward the dramatic. We all tend toward bad humor during bad weather.
See also: tend, toward
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

tend toward

v.
1. To have a tendency toward something: Most kinds of paint tend toward peeling over time.
2. To be disposed or inclined toward something: Many children tend toward exaggeration.
3. To move or extend in some direction: Our ship tended toward the northern coast.
See also: tend, toward
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • tend toward (something)
  • well disposed toward (someone or something)
  • well disposed to
  • well disposed to (someone or something)
  • in the same mold
  • skeleton at the feast
  • recognize (someone or something) by (something)
  • recognize by
  • that's (someone or something) for you
  • there's something for you
References in periodicals archive
"I tend toward the creative side and he tends toward the business side."
Michael Kleinberg: designing relationships
Rather than seeking inspiration from this melting pot of cultures, however, models for the development of tourism tend toward Eurocentric scenographic solutions.
Pirates of the Caribbean: local practice, Architects Cubed, discuss how tourism and Colonial pastiche are challenging development of an authentic architectural typology across much of the Caribbean
Such interactions are best understood as dynamic systems that tend toward stable patterns but that can change in response to pressure applied at key times, contend Patterson and psychologist Isabela Granic of the University of Toronto.
Violent developments: disruptive kids grow into their behavior
In such a career, the best that can be hoped for is increasing refinement of a given set of strategies--which may well be a worthy goal, but one that will, I think, inevitably tend toward irrelevance.
Peripheral vision: Isabelle Graw on the art of Jutta Koether
Although her politics tend toward radical libertarianism, she sees some benefit to "some of what is being done in the name of SarbOx compliance," along with a lot of burdensome requirements that make little sense.
You can be too careful: how the government's new corporate accounting rules impede efficiency and stifle innovation
Some studies have shown that people who eat fish tend to consume less meat and cheese, and may tend toward eating other healthy foods like vegetables and brown rice.
Facing facts about fish
After all, if terrorist groups are to sustain their operations, they likely will tend toward mounting suicide attacks on commercial and military vessels for such purposes as--
Terror by sea: the unique challenges of port security
Fishermen are known for telling tales of their catches that tend toward exaggeration.
Fish tales to ensure health
Louis) tend toward revitalization of derelict inner-city properties and brownfields.
Urban Wal-Marts: no big easy
The narrative is readable and the writing fairly competent, although the characterizations tend toward the two-dimensional.
Spirits white as lightning
Cicatricial pemphigoid is a chronic, systemic, autoimmune disease characterized by progressive bullous skin and mucous membrane lesions that tend toward scarring and involution.
Cicatricial pemphigoid: Report of five cases. (Original Article)
For his part, Brown goes on with a metacritical discussion of the nature and limits of historical understanding itself, a discussion that concludes with the judicious acknowledgement that the "abstracting, genera lizing, and universalizing tendencies" of theoretical models need to be resisted" (49) where they tend toward the homogenization of a world more complex than most scholarly theories can admit.
Reading Dreams: The Interpretation of Dreams from Chaucer to Shakespeare. (Reviews)
Therefore, they are sacred and bear specialized properties that tend toward the supernatural.
"Amen" and "Ashe": African American Protestant worship and its West African ancestor
In fact, many journals that tend toward highly quantitative articles request that referees assess a manuscript's potential for being understood by readers who are not prepared to assimilate the quantitative content.
Qualitative research and the editorial tradtion: a mixed metaphor
The three discursive complexes which Olaniyan identifies (Eurocentric, Afrocentric, and post-Afrocentric) all tend toward expressive and performative propositions of culture and identity, Olaniyan argues.
Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance