temper
noun
- degree of anger
- state of mind
verb
- make more moderate
- make stronger
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈtɛmpə/ / /ˈtɛmpɚ/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ġetemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temperō (“(transitive) to divide or proportion duly, to moderate, to regulate; (intransitive) to be moderate, temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal.
- A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting.
“to have a good, bad, or calm temper”
“A noble temper dost thou show in this;”
- State of mind; mood.
“Remember with what mild / And gracious temper he both heard and judg’d / Without wrauth or reviling;”
“[…] I must testify from my Experience, that a Temper of Peace, Thankfulness, Love and Affection, is much more the proper Frame for Prayer than that of Terror and Discomposure;”
- A tendency to become angry.
“to have a hasty temper”
“He has quite a temper when dealing with salespeople.”
- Anger; a fit of anger.
“an outburst of temper”
“When I heard about it I got myself into a terrible temper.”
- Calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity; composure.
“to keep one's temper; to lose one's temper; to recover one's temper”
“Reſtore your ſelues, vnto your temper, Fathers; / And, vvithout perturbation, heare me ſpeake: […]”
- Constitution of body; the mixture or relative proportion of the four humours: blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy.
“[…] it is hard to say, whether [Christ’s] pain was more shamefull, or his shame more painfull unto him: the exquisiteness of his bodily temper, increasing the exquisiteness of his torment, and the ingenuity of his Soul, adding to his sensibleness of the indignities and affronts offered until him.”
- Middle state or course; mean; medium.
“The perfect lawgiver is a just temper between the mere man of theory, who can see nothing but general principles, and the mere man of business, who can see nothing but particular circumstances.”
- The state of any compound substance which results from the mixture of various ingredients; due mixture of different qualities.
“the temper of mortar”
- The heat treatment to which a metal or other material has been subjected; a material that has undergone a particular heat treatment.
- The state of a metal or other substance, especially as to its hardness, produced by some process of heating or cooling.
“the temper of iron or steel”
“Between two blades, which bears the better temper: […] / I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement; / But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, / Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.”
- Milk of lime, or other substance, employed in the process formerly used to clarify sugar.
“1803, John Browne Cutting, “A Succinct History of Jamaica” in Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, pp. xciv-xcv, All cane juice is liable to rapid fermentation. As soon, therefore, as the clarifier is filled, the fire is lighted, and the temper (white lime of Bristol) is stirred into it. The alkali of the lime having neutralized its superabundant acid, a part of it becomes the basis of the sugar.”
- A non-plastic material, such as sand, added to clay to prevent shrinkage and cracking during drying or firing; tempering.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ġetemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temperō (“(transitive) to divide or proportion duly, to moderate, to regulate; (intransitive) to be moderate, temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal.
- To moderate or control.
“Temper your language around children.”
“It is all very well tempering enthusiasm for the Report in most of its particulars, as the thinking press has since the debate, [...].”
- To strengthen or toughen a material, especially metal, by heat treatment; anneal.
“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.”
“The temper'd metals clash, and yield a silver sound.”
- To adjust the temperature of an ingredient (e.g. eggs or chocolate) gradually so that it remains smooth and pleasing.
- To sauté spices in ghee or oil to release essential oils for flavouring a dish in South Asian cuisine.
- To mix clay, plaster or mortar with water to obtain the proper consistency.
- To adjust, as the mathematical scale to the actual scale, or to that in actual use.
- To govern; to manage.
“With which the damned ghosts he governeth, / And furies rules, and Tartare tempereth.”
- To combine in due proportions; to constitute; to compose.
“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; […]”
- 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.
“Puritan austerity was so tempered by Dutch indifference, that mercy itself could not have dictated a milder system.”
“1682 (first performance), Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv'd Woman! lovely woman! nature made thee / To temper man: we had been brutes without you.”
- To fit together; to adjust; to accommodate.
“Thy sustenance […] serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man's liking.”