Word.ws English Dictionary

attempering

attempering is the present participle and gerund of attemper.

Meaning of attemper

Verb

attemper (third-person singular simple present attempers, present participle attempering, simple past and past participle attempered)

  1. To temper by adjusting relative quantities, or blending qualities.
  2. To mitigate, assuage.
    • But we must add, that she did say, by way of attempering her pleasure: "Well! I must say I never saw a finer young man in my life—indeed I don’t know that the court of Great Britain quite boasts his equal...1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter LVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 86
  3. (archaic) To regulate, arrange, organise.
    • Thus fairely she attempered her feast, / And pleasd them all with meete satietie [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Questions about attempering

What is attempering the present participle and gerund of?
Attempering is the present participle and gerund of attemper.

Words near attempering in the dictionary

  1. attemperations
  2. attemperator
  3. attemperators
  4. attempered
  5. attempereth
  6. attempering
  7. attemperly
  8. attemperment
  9. attempers
  10. attempre
  11. attempres

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: attempering (page history and authors); attemper (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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