Definition of "temper"

temper

/ˈtɛmpə/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural tempers
1. A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting.
  Quotations
  A noble temper dost thou show in this;
  c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]
  And it was peculiar in their Temper, that they were fonder of what they could get by Rapine or Stealth at a greater diſtance, than much better Food provided for them at home.
  1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Great Love of His Native Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 262
  […] when she smiled, the Sweetness of her Temper diffused that Glory over her Countenance, which no Regularity of Features can give.
  1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 2, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book 4, page 141
  I am of a cautious temper, and unwilling to risk my happiness in a hurry.
  1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter IV, in Mansfield Park: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […]
  […] Amy smiled without bitterness, for she possessed a happy temper and hopeful spirit.
  1868–1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 26, in Little Women: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers
  […] it appeared as if to be alone in the great house of his fathers suited his temper.
  1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015
2. State of mind; mood.
  Quotations
  Remember with what mild / And gracious temper he both heard and judg’d / Without wrauth or reviling;
  1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 1046-1048
  […] 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;
  1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, page 193
  [H]er temper was fluctuating; joy for a few instants shone in her eyes, but it continually gave place to distraction and reverie.
  1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones
  ‘You should be careful not to irritate her, James. Her temper has been soured, remember, and ought not to be tried.’
  1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 29, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850
  She bowed to him, to put him in a good temper.
  1950, Nevil Shute, chapter 3, in A Town Like Alice‎, London: Heinemann, published 1952, page 94
3. A tendency to become angry.
  Quotations
  “I guess you’ve got a spice of temper,” commented Mr. Harrison, surveying the flushed cheeks and indignant eyes opposite him.
  1909, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 3, in Anne of Avonlea‎
  ‘What a temper you’ve got, Wormold.’‘I’m sorry. Drink takes me that way.’
  1958, Graham Greene, chapter 5, in Our Man in Havana‎, Penguin, published 1969
  His criticism of Inés makes him bristle. Nonetheless, he holds his temper in check.
  2013, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 28, in The Childhood of Jesus‎, London: Harvill Secker, page 251
4. Anger; a fit of anger.
  Quotations
  Hortense remained for several days in a condition of sullen anger—she was a cloud lit up by occasional unaccountable flashes of temper.
  1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 28, in Bertram Cope’s Year‎
  Jill suddenly flew into a temper (which is quite a likely thing to happen if you have been interrupted in a cry).
  1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 1, in The Silver Chair, London: Geoffrey Bles, published 1965
  […] she banged the door as she left as though in temper and walked to her car.
  1999, Colm Tóibín, chapter 4, in The Blackwater Lightship‎, New York: Scribner, page 110
5. Calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity; composure.
  Quotations
  Restore your selues, vnto your temper, Fathers; / And, without perturbation, heare me speake:
  1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, Act IV
  Teach me like thee, in various Nature wiſe, / To fall with Dignity, with Temper riſe; [...]
  1734, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle IV, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], page 79, lines 372–373
  “And I think, madam,” said the Lord Keeper, losing his accustomed temper and patience, “that if you had nothing better to tell us, you had better have kept this family secret to yourself also.”
  1819, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XXII, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […]
  […] her temper was rarely ruffled, and, if we might judge by her appearance, she was always happy.
  1857, Anthony Trollope, chapter 19, in Barchester Towers. […], copyright edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1859
  Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
6. (obsolete) Constitution of body; the mixture or relative proportion of the four humours: blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy.
  Quotations
  […] 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.
  1650, Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof‎, London: John Williams, Book 3, Chapter 12, p. 345
7. Middle state or course; mean; medium.
  Quotations
  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.
  1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 11, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, page 86
8. The state of any compound substance which results from the mixture of various ingredients; due mixture of different qualities.
9. The heat treatment to which a metal or other material has been subjected; a material that has undergone a particular heat treatment.
10. The state of a metal or other substance, especially as to its hardness, produced by some process of heating or cooling.
  Quotations
  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.
  1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iv]
11. (sugar manufacture, historical) Milk of lime, or other substance, employed in the process formerly used to clarify sugar.
  Quotations
  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.
  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
verb
third-person singular simple present tempers, present participle tempering, simple past and past participle tempered
1. To moderate or control.
  Quotations
  It is all very well tempering enthusiasm for the Report in most of its particulars, as the thinking press has since the debate, [...].
  1963 June, “Second thoughts on Beeching”, in Modern Railways, page 361
2. To strengthen or toughen a material, especially metal, by heat treatment; anneal.
  Quotations
  The temper'd metals clash, and yield a silver sound.
  1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
3. (cooking) To adjust the temperature of an ingredient (e.g. eggs or chocolate) gradually so that it remains smooth and pleasing.
4. To sauté spices in ghee or oil to release essential oils for flavouring a dish in South Asian cuisine.
5. To mix clay, plaster or mortar with water to obtain the proper consistency.
6. (music) To adjust, as the mathematical scale to the actual scale, or to that in actual use.
7. (obsolete, Latinism) To govern; to manage.
  Quotations
  With which the damned ghosts he governeth, / And furies rules, and Tartare tempereth.
  1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […]
8. (archaic) To combine in due proportions; to constitute; to compose.
  Quotations
  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; […]
  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, [Act III, scene iii]
9. (archaic) 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.
  Quotations
  Puritan austerity was so tempered by Dutch indifference, that mercy itself could not have dictated a milder system.
  1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent
  Woman! lovely woman! nature made thee / To temper man: we had been brutes without you.
  1682 (first performance), Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv'd
  But thy fire / Shall be more tempered, and thy hope far higher.
  1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], (please specify the stanza number)
  She [the Goddess of Justice] threw darkness and clouds about her, that tempered the light into a thousand beautiful shades and colours.
  1709, Joseph Addison, The Tatler, number 100
10. (obsolete) To fit together; to adjust; to accommodate.
  Quotations
  Thy sustenance […] serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man's liking.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Wisdom of Solomon 16:21

Definition of "temper"

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