temporize

Verb

temporize (third-person singular simple present temporizes, present participle temporizing, simple past and past participle temporized)

1. (British, English, Oxford, US, intransitive) To deliberately act evasively or prolong a discussion in order to gain time or postpone a decision, sometimes so that a compromise can be reached or simply to make a conversation more temperate; to stall for time.
   • “There are more answers to that than you may think,” Chih temporized, because there were, but they could see that there was only one answer that really mattered to tigers.2020, Nghi Vo, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, chapter 8
2. (British, English, Oxford, US, broadly, intransitive) To discuss, to negotiate; to reach a compromise.
   • The Dolphin is too wilfull oppoſite, / And will not temporize with my intreaties: / He flatly ſaies, heell not lay downe his Armes.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
   • I ought to have temporized with this singular being, learned the motives of its interference, and availed myself of its succor, [...]1822, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume IV, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 5
3. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To apply a temporary piece of dental work that will later be removed.
   • This is especially true when we're faced with temporizing a patient who will ultimately receive veneer restorations.2005, Dental Economics, volume 95, Tulsa, Okla.: PennWell Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 66
4. (British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, intransitive) To comply with the occasion or time; to humour, or yield to, current circumstances or opinion; also, to trim (“fluctuate between parties, so as to appear to favour each”).
   • Yet ſeeking at the firſt to temporize, / She tries if that ſome ſhort impriſonment / would calme their heat; when that would not ſuffize, / Then to exile him ſhee muſt needes conſent: [...]1595, Samuel Daniel, “The Fovvrth Booke”, in The First Fowre Bookes of the Ciuile Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke, London: […] P[eter] Short for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, stanza 102...
   • Happy he, in that he is freed from the tumults of the world, hee ſeekes no honours, gapes after no preferment, flatters not, envies not, temporizeth not, but liues priuately, and well contented with his eſtate, [...]1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Against Pouerty and Want, with Such Other Adversity”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and...
5. (British, English, Oxford, US, intransitive, obsolete) To delay, especially until a more favourable time; to procrastinate.
   • Pedro. Nay, if Cupid haue not ſpent all his quiuer in Venice, thou wilt quake for this ſhortly. / Bened[ick]. I looke for an earthquake too then. / Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the howres, [...]1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I...
   • The Earle of Lincolne [John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln] deceiued of his hopes of the Countries concourſe vnto him (in which caſe he would haue temporized) and ſeeing the buſineſſe paſt Retraict, reſolued to make on where the King [Henry VII of England] was, and to giue him Battaile; [...]1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret...
6. (British, English, Oxford, US, transitive) To take temporary measures or actions to manage a situation without providing a definitive or permanent solution.