Tempered

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-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.
 * 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 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.
 * 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 tempered by reflection — Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
 * 1)  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.

Synonyms

 * See also Thesaurus:moderate

Antonyms

 * untempered

Verb
tempered



Thesaurus
aged, annealed, chastened, conditioned, constrained, controlled, developed, full-blown, full-fledged, full-grown, fully developed, hardened, heat-treated, hedged, hedged about, hushed, in control, in full bloom, in hand, leavened, limited, mature, mellow, mellowed, mitigated, modified, modulated, qualified, quelled, restrained, restricted, ripe, seasoned, softened, stable, subdued, toughened