contemper

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin contemperare, contemperatum, from con- + temperare (“to temper”). Compare contemperate.

Verb

contemper (third-person singular simple present contempers, present participle contempering, simple past and past participle contempered)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To modify or temper; to allay; to qualify; to moderate or soften.
    The antidotes […] have allayed its bitterness and contempered its malignancy. — Johnson.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for contemper in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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