Word.ws English Dictionary

contempering

contempering is the present participle and gerund of contemper.

Meaning of contemper

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.
    • Though earth hath engroſſed the name yet water hath proved the ſmarteſt grave; which in forty dayes ſwallowed almoſt mankinde, and the living creation ; Fiſhes not wholly eſcaping, except the Salt Ocean were handſomely contempered by a mixture of the freſh Element.1658, Thomas Browne, “Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall. […]. Chapter I”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 1

Questions about contempering

What is contempering the present participle and gerund of?
Contempering is the present participle and gerund of contemper.

Words near contempering in the dictionary

  1. contemperates
  2. contemperation
  3. contemperations
  4. contemperature
  5. contempered
  6. contempering
  7. contempers
  8. contemplable
  9. contemplant
  10. contemplants
  11. contemplatable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contempering (page history and authors); contemper (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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