temper
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɛmpə/
ipa: /ˈtɛmpɚ/
rhymes: -ɛmpə(ɹ)
Forms: form: tempers
form: tempering
form: tempered
form: tempered
form: tempre
Etymology: From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ġetemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temperō (“I divide or proportion duly, I moderate, I regulate; intransitive senses I am moderate, I am temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal.
Senses: examples: text: Temper your language around children.
text: It is all very well tempering enthusiasm for the Report in most of its particulars, as the thinking press has since the debate, [...].
ref: 1963 June, “Second thoughts on Beeching”, in Modern Railways, page 361:
synonyms: season
glosses: To moderate or control.
examples: text: Tempering is a heat treatment technique applied to metals, alloys, and glass to achieve greater toughness by increasing the strength of materials and/or ductility. Tempering is performed by a controlled reheating of the work piece to a temperature below its lower eutectic critical temperature.
text: The temper'd metals clash, and yield a silver sound.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To strengthen or toughen a material, especially metal, by heat treatment; anneal.
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: To adjust the temperature of an ingredient (e.g. eggs or chocolate) gradually so that it remains smooth and pleasing.
glosses: To sauté spices in ghee or oil to release essential oils for flavouring a dish in South Asian cuisine.
glosses: To mix clay, plaster or mortar with water to obtain the proper consistency.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: To adjust, as the mathematical scale to the actual scale, or to that in actual use.
examples: text: With which the damned ghosts he governeth, / And furies rules, and Tartare tempereth.
ref: 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To govern; to manage.
examples: text: You fools! I and my fellows / Are ministers of fate: the elements / Of whom your swords are temper'd may as well / Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs / Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish / One dowle that's in my plume; […]
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
glosses: To combine in due proportions; to constitute; to compose.
examples: text: Puritan austerity was so tempered by Dutch indifference, that mercy itself could not have dictated a milder system.
text: 1682 (first performance), Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv'd
Woman! lovely woman! nature made thee / To temper man: we had been brutes without you.
text: But thy fire / Shall be more tempered, and thy hope far higher.
ref: 1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
text: She [the Goddess of Justice] threw darkness and clouds about her, that tempered the light into a thousand beautiful shades and colours.
ref: 1709, Joseph Addison, The Tatler, number 100:
glosses: To mingle in due proportion; to prepare by combining; to modify, as by adding some new element; to qualify, as by an ingredient; hence, to soften; to mollify; to assuage.
examples: text: Thy sustenance […] serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man's liking.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Wisdom of Solomon 16:21:
glosses: To fit together; to adjust; to accommodate.
Derived terms: mistemper
nontempering
retemper
temperable
temperedness
temperer
tempering
untemper
untempered
well-tempered