Meanings
present singular third person contempers · participle present contempering · participle past contempered · past contempered
- obsoletetransitiveTo modify or temper; to allay; to qualify; to moderate or soften.
The antidotes […] have at leaſt allayed its bitterneſs, and contempered its malignity.
1751 September 3 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. 150. Friday, August 24. 1751.”, in The Rambler, volume VI, Edinburgh: […] Sands, Murray, and Cochran; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, […], published 1751, →OCLC, page 1401 more example
Though earth hath engroſſed the name yet water hath proved the ſmarteſt grave; which in forty dayes ſwallowed almoſt mankinde, and the living creation ; Fiſhes not wholly eſcaping, except the Salt Ocean were handſomely contempered by a mixture of the freſh Element.
1658, Thomas Browne, “Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall. […]. Chapter I”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 1
Origin
- Latincontemperō
- Englishcontemper
Borrowed from Latin contemperō, from con- + temperō (“to temper”). Compare contemperate.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with contemper
All rhymes →Cite this entry
contemper. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contemper
“contemper.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contemper. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “contemper,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/contemper.
Source: contemper on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.