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tempered Twit Definition of tempered Share Definition of tempered on Facebook Digg:Definition of tempered! stumble Definition of tempered Bookmark Definition of tempered on Delicious submit Definition of tempered to reddit Bookmark Definition of tempered
verb 
  1. (past of, temper)
adjective 
  1. Of one's disposition.
The Pyncheon Elm, throughout its great circumference, was all alive, and full of the morning sun and a sweet- little breeze, which lingered within this verdant sphere, and set a thousand leafy tongues a-whispering all at once. This aged tree appeared to have suffered nothing from the gale. " Edgar Allen Poe, The House of the Seven Gables, http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=346264183&tag=Hawthorne,+Nathaniel,+1804-1864:+The+House+of+the+Seven+Gables,+1851&query=tempered&id=Haw3Gab Chapter 19.
  1. Pertaining to the metallurgical process for finishing metals.
1851 "Not forged!" and snatching Perth's levelled iron from the crotch, Ahab held it out, exclaiming -- "Look ye, Nantucketer; here in this hand I hold his death! Tempered in blood, and by lightning are these barbs; and I swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the fin, where the white whale most feels his accursed life!" " Herman Melville, http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=text&offset=475125179&textreg=1&query=tempered&id=Mel2Mob Moby Dick.
  1. Of something moderated or balanced by other considerations.
1792 The downcast eye, the rosy blush, the retiring grace, are all proper in their season; but modesty, being the child of reason, cannot long exist with the sensibility that is not by reflection " Mary Wollstonecraft, http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=748286979&tag=Wollstonecraft,+Mary,+1759-1797:+A+vindication+of+the+rights+of+woman,+1892&query=tempered&id=WolVind A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
  1. (music) Pertaining to the well-tempered scale, where the twelve notes per octave of the standard keyboard are tuned in such a way that it is possible to play music in any major or minor key and it will not sound perceptibly out of tune.
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