Tempered - What does it mean?
tempered | |
Of one's disposition.
Pertaining to the metallurgical process for finishing metals.
Of something moderated or balanced by other considerations.
(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.
(temper)
tempered
English
Adjective
(-)- The Pyncheon Elm, throughout its great circumference, was all alive, and full of the morning sun and a sweet-tempered 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.'' — Nathaniel Hawthorne, ''The House of the Seven Gables ,
Chapter 19.
- 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 '''tempered 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, ''
Moby Dick.
- 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 '''tempered by reflection'' — Mary Wollstonecraft, ''
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
