TEMPERED • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tempered

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/tˈɛmpərd/ Listen

verb

Temper v. t. (past & past part. tempered; pres. part. tempering)

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; to soothe; to calm. "Puritan austerity was so tempered by Dutch indifference, that mercy itself could not have dictated a milder system." "Woman! lovely woman! nature made thee To temper man: we had been brutes without you." "But thy fire Shall be more tempered, and thy hope far higher." "She (the Goddess of Justice) threw darkness and clouds about her, that tempered the light into a thousand beautiful shades and colors."

To fit together; to adjust; to accomodate. "Thy sustenance... serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man's liking."

(Metal.) To bring to a proper degree of hardness; as, to temper iron or steel. "The tempered metals clash, and yield a silver sound."

To govern; to manage. (A Latinism & Obs.) "With which the damned ghosts he governeth, And furies rules, and Tartare tempereth."

To moisten to a proper consistency and stir thoroughly, as clay for making brick, loam for molding, etc.

(Mus.) To adjust, as the mathematical scale to the actual scale, or to that in actual use.

Synonyms: To soften; mollify; assuage; soothe; calm.

Temper v. i.

To accord; to agree; to act and think in conformity. (Obs.)

To have or get a proper or desired state or quality; to grow soft and pliable. "I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him."

adjective

Tempered adj. Brought to a proper temper; as, tempered steel; having (such) a temper; chiefly used in composition; as, a good-tempered or bad-tempered man; a well-tempered sword.

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Etymology of 'Tempered'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tempered" Quotes from Famous Books

... and rarer than this—the sort so often lacking even in generals who have served with utmost distinction in high subordinate places, when they are called to the sole and decisive direction of armies: he had that royal mettle, that preternatural decision of character, ever tempered with caution and wisdom, which leads a great commander, when true occasion arises, resolutely to give general battle, or a swing out away from his base upon a precarious but promising campaign. Here you have moral heroism; ordinary valor is ...

— America First - Patriotic Readings • Various

... at the great festivals. I heard the Walkyria in the pit of the Real Theatre, another night I went to a concert; but the greatest night of all was the one on which I heard the Ninth Symphony of that ugly old fellow, of that deaf, bad-tempered genius ...

— The Shadow of the Cathedral • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... imagination and in that of a wonderful number of mankind) is intolerable. His wife too, whom in my conscience I cannot condemn for any capital bad quality, is so narrow-minded, and, I don't know how, so set upon keeping him under her own management, and so suspicious and so sourishly tempered that it requires the utmost exertion of practical philosophy to keep myself quiet. I however have done so all this week to admiration: nay, I have appeared good-humoured; but it has cost me drinking a considerable quantity of strong ...

— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell

... weapons of the middle ages seem so that were borne at a time when every soldier took the field cased in armor of proof. The slim scimitar or slender rapier would have availed but little against massive iron helmets or mail coats of tempered steel. And so the warriors of the period armed themselves with ponderous maces, battle-axes as massive as hammers, and double-handed swords of great ...

— The Testimony of the Rocks - or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed • Hugh Miller

... wall around it. It was owned by a man named Creakle, who had begun by raising hops, and had gone into the school business because he had lost all of his own and his wife's money and had no other way to live. He was fat and spoke always in a whisper, and he was so cruel and bad-tempered that not only the boys, but his wife, too, was ...

— Tales from Dickens • Charles Dickens and Hallie Erminie Rives

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