tepid
[tep-id]
- moderately warm; lukewarm: tepid water.
- characterized by a lack of force or enthusiasm: tepid prose; the critics' tepid reception for the new play.
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Origin of tepid
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin tepidus lukewarm, equivalent to tep(ēre) to be lukewarm + -idus -id4
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
halfheartedmildwarmdullunenthusiasticapatheticcooldisinterestedindifferentlanguidlifelessmoderatespiritlesstemperateunlivelywarmishExamples from the Web for tepid
Contemporary Examples
You expect another shower of tepid excuses, but the mother simply shrugs.
Whatever You Do Someone Will Die. A Short Story About Impossible Choices in IraqNathan Bradley Bethea
August 31, 2014
When the show finally premiered, reviews were tepid, at best.
A few weeks ago, as I read things, there were occasional and tepid signals that the House would not take up the Senate bill.
He has had a tepid relationship with organized labor and left-leaning third party the Working Families Party.
In a tepid and narrow ruling, the court threw a chicken bone to the petitioners and about 2,000 others.
Don’t Believe the Hype: Supreme Court Decision on Juvenile Life Without Parole Is WeakDavid R. Dow
June 25, 2012
Historical Examples
So she found him in the hall, holding a cup of tepid coffee.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
So Jacob said; but he was a man of tepid words, and perhaps he remembered the message too coldly.
Tiverton TalesAlice Brown
He declared that tepid water made him feel sick, and that he wanted it fresh.
Therese RaquinEmile Zola
"It's all right, but I'm afraid your cocktail will be tepid," he said.
The Education of Eric LaneStephen McKenna
Lingard took off his hat and drew in a long sigh in the tepid breeze.
The RescueJoseph Conrad
tepid
- slightly warm; lukewarm
- relatively unenthusiastic or apatheticthe play had a tepid reception
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin tepidus, from tepēre to be lukewarm
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for tepid
adj.
c.1400, from Latin tepidus "lukewarm," from tepere "be warm," from PIE root *tep- "warm" (cf. Sanskrit tapati "makes warm, heats, burns," tapah "heat;" Avestan tafnush "fever;" Old Church Slavonic topiti "to warm," teplu "warm;" Old Irish tene "fire;" Welsh tes "heat").
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper