attemper
Americanverb (used with object)
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to modify or moderate by mixing or blending with something different or opposite.
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to regulate or modify the temperature of.
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to soothe; mollify; mitigate.
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to accommodate; adapt (usually followed byto ).
verb
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to modify by blending; temper
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to moderate or soothe
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to accommodate or bring into harmony
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of attemper
1325–75; Middle English attemperen < Latin attemperāre to adjust ( see at-, temper); replacing Middle English attempren < Middle French attemprer < Latin, as above
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness,
From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022
Then to the spring attemper thou thy thought, And let advice rear up thy drooping mind, And leave to weep thy woes unto the wind.
From Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles Phillis - Licia by Crow, Martha Foote
These unite with and attemper one another, so that we doubt when we should, we aim at certainty when we should, and we submit when we should.”
From Pascal by Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Lifted sashes and lofty ceilings were insufficient to attemper it.
From Arthur Mervyn Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 by Brown, Charles Brockden
We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others.
From The Tao Teh King, or the Tao and its Characteristics by Legge, James
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
