If sweet with bitter . . . were not attempered still. Trench. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To soften, mollify, or moderate; to soothe; to temper; as, to attemper rigid justice with clemency. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To mix in just proportion; to regulate; as, a mind well attempered with kindness and justice. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To accommodate; to make suitable; to adapt. [ 1913 Webster ]

Arts . . . attempered to the lyre. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ This word is now not much used, the verb temper taking its place. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hope must be . . . attemperate to the promise. Hammond. [ 1913 Webster ]

The antidotes . . . have allayed its bitterness and contempered its malignancy. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Moisten and contemperate the air. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Proportionate mixture or combination. “Contemperation of light and shade.” Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

The different contemperature of the elements. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

When . . . the humors in his body ben distempered. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To derange the functions of, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual; to disorder; to disease. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The imagination, when completely distempered, is the most incurable of all disordered faculties. Buckminster. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To deprive of temper or moderation; to disturb; to ruffle; to make disaffected, ill-humored, or malignant. “Distempered spirits.” Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To intoxicate. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The courtiers reeling,
And the duke himself, I dare not say distempered,
But kind, and in his tottering chair carousing. Massinger. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Paint.) To mix (colors) in the way of distemper; as, to distemper colors with size. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ This meaning and most of the following are to be referred to the Galenical doctrine of the four “humors” in man. See Humor. According to the old physicians, these humors, when unduly tempered, produce a disordered state of body and mind. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Severity of climate; extreme weather, whether hot or cold. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Those countries . . . under the tropic, were of a distemper uninhabitable. Sir W. Raleigh. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A morbid state of the animal system; indisposition; malady; disorder; -- at present chiefly applied to diseases of brutes; as, a distemper in dogs; the horse distemper; the horn distemper in cattle. [ 1913 Webster ]

They heighten distempers to diseases. Suckling. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Morbid temper of the mind; undue predominance of a passion or appetite; mental derangement; bad temper; ill humor. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Little faults proceeding on distemper. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Some frenzy distemper had got into his head. Bunyan. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Political disorder; tumult. Waller. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Paint.) (a) A preparation of opaque or body colors, in which the pigments are tempered or diluted with weak glue or size (cf. Tempera) instead of oil, usually for scene painting, or for walls and ceilings of rooms. (b) A painting done with this preparation.

Syn. -- Disease; disorder; sickness; illness; malady; indisposition; ailment. See Disease. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Diseased; disordered. [ Obs. ] Wodroephe. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Disorder; confusion. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Disorder of body; slight illness; distemper. [ 1913 Webster ]

A huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to life. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Perturbation of mind; mental uneasiness. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sprinkled a little patience on the heat of his distemperature. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Unhealthy; ill-conditioned. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

So ill-tempered I am grown, that I am afraid I shall catch cold, while all the world is afraid to melt away. Pepys. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The act of becoming, or state of being, intemperate; excess in any kind of action or indulgence; any immoderate indulgence of the appetites or passions. [ 1913 Webster ]

God is in every creature; be cruel toward none, neither abuse any by intemperance. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

Some, as thou sawest, by violent stroke shall die,
By fire, flood, famine, by intemperance more
In meats and drinks. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Specifically: Habitual or excessive indulgence in alcoholic liquors. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such as be intemperant, that is, followers of their naughty appetites and lusts. Udall. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Specifically, addicted to an excessive or habitual use of alcoholic liquors. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Excessive; ungovernable; inordinate; violent; immoderate; as, intemperate language, zeal, etc.; intemperate weather. [ 1913 Webster ]

Most do taste through fond intemperate thirst. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Use not thy mouth to intemperate swearing. Ecclus. xxiii. 13. [ 1913 Webster ]

The people . . . who behaved very unwisely and intemperately on that occasion. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Severity of weather; inclemency. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

By unseasonable weather, by intemperateness of the air or meteors. Sir M. Hale. [ 1913 Webster ]

This inundation of mistempered humor. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Puritan austerity was so tempered by Dutch indifference, that mercy itself could not have dictated a milder system. Bancroft. [ 1913 Webster ]

Woman! lovely woman! nature made thee
To temper man: we had been brutes without you. Otway. [ 1913 Webster ]

But thy fire
Shall be more tempered, and thy hope far higher. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

She [ the Goddess of Justice ] threw darkness and clouds about her, that tempered the light into a thousand beautiful shades and colors. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To fit together; to adjust; to accomodate. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thy sustenance . . . serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man's liking. Wisdom xvi. 21. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Metal.) To bring to a proper degree of hardness; as, to temper iron or steel. [ 1913 Webster ]

The tempered metals clash, and yield a silver sound. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To govern; to manage. [ A Latinism & Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

With which the damned ghosts he governeth,
And furies rules, and Tartare tempereth. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To moisten to a proper consistency and stir thoroughly, as clay for making brick, loam for molding, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Mus.) To adjust, as the mathematical scale to the actual scale, or to that in actual use. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To soften; mollify; assuage; soothe; calm. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Constitution of body; temperament; in old writers, the mixture or relative proportion of the four humors, blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy. [ 1913 Webster ]

The exquisiteness of his [ Christ's ] bodily temper increased the exquisiteness of his torment. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Disposition of mind; the constitution of the mind, particularly with regard to the passions and affections; as, a calm temper; a hasty temper; a fretful temper. [ 1913 Webster ]

Remember with what mild
And gracious temper he both heared and judged. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

The consequents of a certain ethical temper. J. H. Newman. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity; composure; as, to keep one's temper. [ 1913 Webster ]

To fall with dignity, with temper rise. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Restore yourselves to your tempers, fathers. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Heat of mind or passion; irritation; proneness to anger; -- in a reproachful sense. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

6. The state of a metal or other substance, especially as to its hardness, produced by some process of heating or cooling; as, the temper of iron or steel. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. Middle state or course; mean; medium. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. (Sugar Works) Milk of lime, or other substance, employed in the process formerly used to clarify sugar. [ 1913 Webster ]

Temper screw, in deep well boring, an adjusting screw connecting the working beam with the rope carrying the tools, for lowering the tools as the drilling progresses. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Disposition; temperament; frame; humor; mood. See Disposition. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To have or get a proper or desired state or quality; to grow soft and pliable. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The term is applied especially to early Italian painting, common vehicles of which were yolk of egg, yolk and white of egg mixed together, the white juice of the fig tree, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

The fusible, hard, and temperable texture of metals. Emerson. [ 1913 Webster ]

The common law . . . has reduced the kingdom to its just state and temperament. Sir M. Hale. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Due mixture of qualities; a condition brought about by mutual compromises or concessions. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

However, I forejudge not any probable expedient, any temperament that can be found in things of this nature, so disputable on their side. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The act of tempering or modifying; adjustment, as of clashing rules, interests, passions, or the like; also, the means by which such adjustment is effected. [ 1913 Webster ]

Wholesome temperaments of the rashness of popular assemblies. Sir J. Mackintosh. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Condition with regard to heat or cold; temperature. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Bodies are denominated “hot” and “cold” in proportion to the present temperament of that part of our body to which they are applied. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Mus.) A system of compromises in the tuning of organs, pianofortes, and the like, whereby the tones generated with the vibrations of a ground tone are mutually modified and in part canceled, until their number reduced to the actual practicable scale of twelve tones to the octave. This scale, although in so far artificial, is yet closely suggestive of its origin in nature, and this system of tuning, although not mathematically true, yet satisfies the ear, while it has the convenience that the same twelve fixed tones answer for every key or scale, C♯ becoming identical with D♭, and so on. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Physiol.) The peculiar physical and mental character of an individual, in olden times erroneously supposed to be due to individual variation in the relations and proportions of the constituent parts of the body, especially of the fluids, as the bile, blood, lymph, etc. Hence the phrases, bilious or choleric temperament, sanguine temperament, etc., implying a predominance of one of these fluids and a corresponding influence on the temperament. [ 1913 Webster ]

Equal temperament (Mus.), that in which the variations from mathematically true pitch are distributed among all the keys alike. --
Unequal temperament (Mus.), that in which the variations are thrown into the keys least used. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Moderation of passion; patience; calmness; sedateness. [ R. ] “A gentleman of all temperance.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

He calmed his wrath with goodly temperance. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. State with regard to heat or cold; temperature. [ Obs. ] “Tender and delicate temperance.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Temperance society, an association formed for the purpose of diminishing or stopping the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Not marked with passion; not violent; cool; calm; as, temperate language. [ 1913 Webster ]

She is not hot, but temperate as the morn. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

That sober freedom out of which there springs
Our loyal passion for our temperate kings. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Moderate in the indulgence of the natural appetites or passions; as, temperate in eating and drinking. [ 1913 Webster ]

Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Franklin. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Proceeding from temperance. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The temperate sleeps, and spirits light as air. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Temperate zone (Geog.), that part of the earth which lies between either tropic and the corresponding polar circle; -- so called because the heat is less than in the torrid zone, and the cold less than in the frigid zones. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Abstemious; sober; calm; cool; sedate. [ 1913 Webster ]

It inflames temperance, and temperates wrath. Marston. [ 1913 Webster ]

The best composition and temperature is, to have openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to feign, if there be no remedy. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Memory depends upon the consistence and the temperature of the brain. I. Watts. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Freedom from passion; moderation. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth,
Most goodly temperature you may descry. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Physics) Condition with respect to heat or cold, especially as indicated by the sensation produced, or by the thermometer or pyrometer; degree of heat or cold; as, the temperature of the air; high temperature; low temperature; temperature of freezing or of boiling. The temperature of a liquid or a solid body as measured by a thermometer is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the consituent atoms or molecules of the body. For other states of matter such as plasma, electromagnetic radiation, or subatomic particles, an analogous measure of the average kinetic energy may be expressed as a temperature, although it could never be measured by a traditional thermometer, let alone by sensing with the skin. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

4. Mixture; compound. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Made a temperature of brass and iron together. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Physiol. & Med.) The degree of heat of the body of a living being, esp. of the human body; also (Colloq.), loosely, the excess of this over the normal (of the human body 98°-99.5° F., in the mouth of an adult about 98.4°). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

Absolute temperature. (Physics) See under Absolute. --
Animal temperature (Physiol.), the nearly constant temperature maintained in the bodies of warm-blooded (homoiothermal) animals during life. The ultimate source of the heat is to be found in the potential energy of the food and the oxygen which is absorbed from the air during respiration. See Homoiothermal. --
Temperature sense (Physiol.), the faculty of perceiving cold and warmth, and so of perceiving differences of temperature in external objects. H. N. Martin. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]