Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TEM'PER, v.t. [L. tempero, to mix or moderate; It. temperare; Sp. templar, to temper, to soften or moderate, to anneal, as glass, to tune an instrument, to trim sails to the wind; Fr. temperer, to temper, allay or abate; W. tymperu, to temper, to mollify; tym, space; tymp, enlargement, birth, season. The latter unites this word with time. The sense of this word is probably from making seasonable, or timely; hence to make suitable.]

1. To mix so that one part qualifies the other; to bring to a moderate state; as, to temper justice with mercy. Milton.
2. To compound; to form by mixture; to qualify, as by an ingredient; or in general, to mix, unite or combine two or more things so as to reduce the excess of the qualities of either, and bring the whole to the desired consistence or state. Thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy. Exod. xxx.
3. To unite in due proportion; to render symmetrical; to adjust, as parts to each other. God hath tempered the body together. 1 Cor. xii.
4. To accommodate; to modify. Thy sustenance serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man's liking. Wisdom.
5. To soften; to mollify; to assuage; to soothe; to calm; to reduce any violence or excess. Solon – labored to temper the warlike courages of the Athenians with sweet delights of learning. Spenser. Woman! nature made thee, / To temper man; we had been brutes without you. Otway.
6. To form to a proper degree of hardness; as, to temper iron or steel. The temper'd metals clash, and yield a silver sound. Dryden.
7. To govern; a Latinism. [Not in use.] Spenser.
8. In music, to modify or amend a false or imperfect concord by transferring to it a part of the beauty of a perfect one, that is, by dividing the tones. Cyc.