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tempered
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tempered as in:  bad news tempered by kindness

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  • The loss she felt when her husband died is tempered by the joy of her new grandchild.
  • I was fascinated with the way that human beings had grappled with the ideas of absolute evil and absolute good tempered with love and free will.   (source)
  • I watched from the bar, my anxiety tempered somewhat by my double scotch.   (source)
  • There is hope in Baldwin's last paragraph, but it is hope tempered by knowledge of terrible dangers.   (source)
  • Any enjoyment of his own success had to be tempered by a hard, cold reality.   (source)
  • There's a sadness in her expression tempered by hope.   (source)
  • Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.   (source)
  • And when Squealer went on to give further graphic details of Boxer's death-bed, the admirable care he had received, and the expensive medicines for which Napoleon had paid without a thought as to the cost, their last doubts disappeared and the sorrow that they felt for their comrade's death was tempered by the thought that at least he had died happy.   (source)
  • There was gladness and mirth and peace everywhere, for we were at rest ourselves on one account, and we were glad, though it was with a tempered joy.   (source)
  • ...speaking in an authoritative voice, although tempered with respect towards the youthful clergyman whom he addressed:   (source)
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  • On that occasion, he again, with a full heart, acknowledged that God had tempered judgment with mercy.   (source)
  • Feeling without judgment is a washy draught indeed; but judgment untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition.   (source)
    untempered = not made less extreme
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in untempered means not and reverses the meaning of tempered. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • The mother's impassioned state had been the medium through which were transmitted to the unborn infant the rays of its moral life; and, however white and clear originally, they had taken the deep stains of crimson and gold, the fiery lustre, the black shadow, and the untempered light of the intervening substance.   (source)
  • He was not ill-fitted to be the head and representative of a community which owed its origin and progress, and its present state of development, not to the impulses of youth, but to the stern and tempered energies of manhood and the sombre sagacity of age; accomplishing so much, precisely because it imagined and hoped so little.   (source)
    tempered = made less extreme
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tempered as in:  tempered steel

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  • They found a tempered pickaxe in Galilee, dating from around 1000 to 1100 BCE.
    tempered = made stronger by heat treatment
  • Tempered glass is also called safety glass because, in addition to being stronger, when it shatters it breaks into small beads instead of long sharp shards.
    tempered = made stronger or more flexible by heat treatment
  • And the glass is tempered, set in a steel frame.   (source)
    tempered = made stronger
  • The other is tempered steel.   (source)
  • There was a note in his father's voice that startled Jace—a fierce humility that seemed to temper Valentine's pride, as steel might be tempered by fire.   (source)
    tempered = made more flexible
  • It could be beaten like copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel.   (source)
    tempered = made stronger
  • It was a complete set, made of specially tempered steel, the latest designs in drills, punches, braces and bits, jimmies, clamps, and augers, with two or three novelties, invented by Jimmy himself, in which he took pride.   (source)
    tempered = made stronger or more flexible by heat treatment
  • Conscious of his own infirmity—that his tempered steel and elasticity are lost—he for ever afterwards looks wistfully about him in quest of support external to himself.   (source)
    tempered = made stronger or less brittle by heat treatment (figurative)
  • All steel must be tempered— subjected to great heat, almost enough to melt or destroy the metal—to make it stronger.   (source)
    tempered = made stronger or less brittle by heat treatment
  • Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe.   (source)
    tempered = made stronger
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  • After that episode, the visitor lodge had been reworked with heavy barred gates, a high perimeter fence, and tempered-glass windows.   (source)
  • Emma could hardly wait the six years until she would be eighteen, when she could travel the world to fight demons, when she could be tempered in fire.   (source)
  • But I know now there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn.   (source)
    tempered = made stronger or more flexible
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tempered as in:  short-tempered

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • Nobody wants to work with her because she is bad-tempered.
    tempered = easily angered or annoyed
  • By 1932, the modest, mild-tempered Cunningham, whose legs and back were covered in a twisting mesh of scars, was becoming a national sensation, soon to be acclaimed as the greatest miler in American history.   (source)
    tempered = typical mood or way of behaving
  • The little creature might look like an elephant, but he acted like a vicious rodent, quick-moving and mean-tempered.   (source)
    mean-tempered = tending to try to hurt others
  • Roy wondered what made a grownup turn out so ill-tempered and obnoxious.   (source)
    ill-tempered = rude or easily made angry
  • A reckless, hot-tempered boy, cocky and scared stiff at the same time.   (source)
    tempered = having a typical mood
  • And to have a house full of children I think I'm pretty even tempered.   (source)
    even tempered = not easily angered or upset
  • Some distance separated the bulls from each other, for they are bad-tempered, very jealous by nature and quick to fight over anything that displeases them.   (source)
    bad-tempered = tending to get angry or annoyed easily
  • Outside, the spring rains resume ill-temperedly.   (source)
    temperedly = in a nasty (unkind) manner
  • Benjamin was the oldest animal on the farm, and the worst tempered.   (source)
    tempered = having a tendency to get angry
  • We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers—we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals.   (source)
    tempered = typical mood
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show 89 more with this conextual meaning
  • "Black" Burton, a man evil-tempered and malicious, had been picking a quarrel with a tenderfoot at the bar, when Thornton stepped good-naturedly between.   (source)
  • And that ugly tempered lady, old Mistress Hibbins, was one.   (source)
  • Jane, I am not a gentle-tempered man — you forget that: I am not long-enduring; I am not cool and dispassionate.   (source)
    tempered = typical mood or way of behaving
  • Sultana was very short-tempered and my mother did not like having her in the house, but my father arranged a small allowance for her and a place for Shehnaz and her other brother at his school.†   (source)
  • "What's the good of that if I'm not on the House team?" said Malfoy, looking sulky and bad-tempered.†   (source)
  • The expression was haughty and severe, like that of an ill-tempered old man who has complaining on his mind.†   (source)
  • She was the one who put him down to nap, who played even-tempered peacemaker to her volatile sibling.†   (source)
  • Thomas, concerned for Alby despite his recent ill-tempered ways, turned back to Minho and repeated his question.†   (source)
  • For once, my short-tempered answer did not rile her.†   (source)
  • Humiliation, rage, and disbelief all played across his typically even-tempered face.†   (source)
  • Liza Hempstock, who had been Bod's friend for the last six years, was different in another way; she was less likely to be there for him when Bod went down to the nettle-patch to see her, and on the rare occasions when she was, she would be short-tempered, argumentative, and often downright rude.†   (source)
  • Ill-tempered until the end, aren't you?†   (source)
  • He yawns at meals, is short-tempered with the younger children.†   (source)
  • Count Olaf was neither interesting nor kind; he was demanding, short-tempered, and bad-smelling.†   (source)
  • She had such a sweet-tempered disposition, it was impossible to stay angry with her.†   (source)
  • Maege is a hoary old snark, stubborn, short-tempered, and willful.†   (source)
  • You're even-tempered.†   (source)
  • Flintstone, who's my age, with his big head and bushy unibrow; Tank, the skinny, quick-tempered farm boy; Dumbo, the twelve-year-old with the big ears and quick smile that disappeared quickly during the first week of basic; Poundcake, the eight-year-old who never talks, but who's our best shot by far; Oompa, the chubby kid with the crooked teeth who's last in every drill but first in chow line; and finally the youngest, Teacup, the meanest seven-year-old you'll ever meet, the most gung ho of all of us, who worships the ground Reznik walks on, no matter how much she's screamed at or kicked around.†   (source)
  • They'll be attached to some rabble group, to captain injured, incapable, or bad-tempered soldiers.†   (source)
  • Already, even from the drawing room, it was possible to hear an occasional muffled bad-tempered shout and the clang of a saucepan hitting the hob with unnatural force.†   (source)
  • Although sometimes they are bad-tempered and stingy.†   (source)
  • We assembled in groups according to our barracks' number and were counted and recounted while short-tempered, cruel guards harassed us.†   (source)
  • They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy—not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.†   (source)
  • The winds between here and Chicago are bad-tempered.†   (source)
  • He was the kind of man—powerful of body, even-tempered, and not easily led—who cannot refuse support to partisans without drawing their deepest resentment.†   (source)
  • Very serene and even-tempered — very stable.†   (source)
  • She looked grumpy and bad-tempered, with her babylegs dangling.†   (source)
  • When Eragon finally stopped, he was tired and ill-tempered.†   (source)
  • This devotion made my life difficult at times; when I paid too much attention to the Minister, Nobu grew short-tempered, and the side of his face with less scarring turned a brilliant red from anger.†   (source)
  • He tried to put the thought from his mind, more ill tempered than ever.†   (source)
  • Folk shoe their horses badly, saddle them improperly, feed them poorly, then complain that they were sold a half-lame, swayback, ill-tempered hack.†   (source)
  • Some are more short-tempered than others, but on one occasion I had a whole team mad at me.†   (source)
  • There are some cows very bad-tempered that will hook you with a horn or give you a good kick, but this was not one of them, and once I had my forehead into her flank she settled right down to the business.†   (source)
  • I knew she was in despair over our shortage of food that day, and she was short-tempered.†   (source)
  • Oddly, it was even-tempered Betsie who reacted most strongly, hurtling from her chair and flinging herself at the radio to shut off the sound.†   (source)
  • He'd held out his pleasantness the way a trainer, faced with an ill-tempered horse, might hold out a carrot, with the clear implication that it could always be withdrawn.†   (source)
  • Over the course of dinner I notice that she can be snappish and short-tempered, and she likes to be the boss.†   (source)
  • The young woman was gaining weight before everybody's eyes and daily grew more languid and ill-tempered.†   (source)
  • There is a sense of wandering now, an aimless and haunted mood, sweet-tempered people taken to the edge.†   (source)
  • It didn't help that Al was an awful patient, ornery at being so confined, short-tempered and demanding.†   (source)
  • He was a calm, even-tempered man with a kind of dreamy nature; a man given to staring out the window of his office, thinking about one thing or another.†   (source)
  • Now, Miss Kenton, there is no need to become so bad tempered.†   (source)
  • He was a decent, sweet-tempered fellow without any prejudice and he became like a younger brother to me.†   (source)
  • I'm not sure that I'm even-tempered enough to handle that.†   (source)
  • Nye is a short, short-tempered man who has difficulty moderating his aggressive vigor, his talent for language both sharp and outspoken.†   (source)
  • Though shy around girls, he was introduced to Martha, a sweet-tempered blonde from Georgia who was working at the medical school library, and when he never got around to asking her out, she took it upon herself to do so.†   (source)
  • Lewis wasn't a drinker, or a druggie, or even bad tempered.†   (source)
  • For the rest of the day, I'm short-tempered and distracted.†   (source)
  • Moody was short-tempered.†   (source)
  • I do not wish to seek out an ill-tempered Fomorian and beg favors from him.†   (source)
  • The Hamiltons were quick-tempered and sometimes hard-hearted people, but the Presleys were gifted, could play anything and sing like angels.†   (source)
  • Helene's brown eyes could snap, Germaine's grey eyes were beautiful, soft and cow-like, she spoke slowly and, unlike most Creole girls, was very even-tempered.†   (source)
  • Lee was also self-assured, highly opinionated, moody, and ill-tempered (his Indian name was Boiling Water), and he was thought by many to have the best military mind of any of the generals, a view he openly shared.†   (source)
  • 'The Lord gave us good farmers two strong hands so that we could take as much as we could grab with both of them,' he preached with ardor on the courthouse steps or in front of the A&P as he waited for the bad-tempered gum-chewing young cashier he was after to step outside and give him a nasty look.†   (source)
  • If you had only given me some hint, if you had only broken your word with me a couple of times, if you had been bad-tempered or impatient with me—if you had been a lesser man, maybe I could have taken what I saw you doing.†   (source)
  • The birds were reluctant and bad-tempered, huffed up against the cold.†   (source)
  • All they wanted was a plug of tobacco, a bad-tempered horse and a handful of sky.†   (source)
  • Where she had always been brisk, she became short-tempered; where she had been even-tempered, she was waspish.†   (source)
  • Search of off-planet luggage was tight by then and conducted by bad-tempered Dragoons—but Stu was certain he would have no trouble.†   (source)
  • There was blood, a great deal of it, splattered on walls and silks like a bad-tempered child's angry fingerpaints.†   (source)
  • He's only about one hundred and nine, and the most boring, bad-tempered man in the universe, apart from my dad.†   (source)
  • With an ill-tempered gesture he threw the whip back on the table.†   (source)
  • He was so smart and he always kept his head, never angry or quick-tempered, and on a milk run, of all things.†   (source)
  • Vain and bad-tempered, balding, full of self-pity.†   (source)
  • Be even-tempered [underlined by one of the cal-ligraphers] in success and failure; for it is this evenness of temper which is meant by yoga.†   (source)
  • A capable girl, and so sweet-tempered!†   (source)
  • people bad-tempered.†   (source)
  • There's nothing will upset a house like an ill-tempered girl.†   (source)
  • "I'm a bit quick-tempered, 'tis true," he explained, "and perhaps too touchy about my past.†   (source)
  • He'd suffered the usual brainless complaints of diner patrons, no two of whom meant the same thing by "rare" or "medium" when they ordered a T-bone steak, and along with that the eternal nagging of the owner's wife, a short-tempered middle-aged Irish lady who blamed her flare-ups, afterward, on the fact that she was a redhead, which she was not.†   (source)
  • Sam, an ill-tempered Messiah, glowering at his humble disciples.†   (source)
  • "Oh, come off it!" said Edmund, who was tired and pretending not to be tired, which always made him bad-tempered.†   (source)
  • Yll, you're so bad-tempered.†   (source)
  • One wants his leg placed so, another so, a third wants water, a fourth wants her to shake his pillow;—in the end the buxom old body grumbled bad-temperedly and slammed the doors.   (source)
    temperedly = moodedly (in a bad mood)
  • She thought he was really good-tempered, and could fancy his entering into a plan of that sort most pleasantly.   (source)
    tempered = typical mood
  • Mrs. Fairfax turned out to be what she appeared, a placid-tempered, kind-natured woman, of competent education and average intelligence.   (source)
    tempered = typical mood or way of behaving
  • The first feeling was disappointment: he had hoped better things; he had thought that an hour's entreaty from a young man like Crawford could not have worked so little change on a gentle-tempered girl like Fanny; but there was speedy comfort in the determined views and sanguine perseverance of the lover; and when seeing such confidence of success in the principal, Sir Thomas was soon able to depend on it himself.   (source)
    tempered = typical mood
  • It might be, too, that a witch, like old Mistress Hibbins, the bitter-tempered widow of the magistrate, was to die upon the gallows.   (source)
  • As she grew up, a sound English education corrected in a great measure her French defects; and when she left school, I found in her a pleasing and obliging companion: docile, good-tempered, and well-principled.   (source)
    tempered = typical mood or way of behaving
  • The very idea of her having been suffered to grow up at a distance from us all in poverty and neglect, would be enough to make either of the dear, sweet-tempered boys in love with her.   (source)
    sweet-tempered = kind
  • As they descended the steps, it is averred that the lattice of a chamber-window was thrown open, and forth into the sunny day was thrust the face of Mistress Hibbins, Governor Bellingham's bitter-tempered sister, and the same who, a few years later, was executed as a witch.   (source)
    tempered = typical mood
  • She could not do otherwise than accept him, for he was rich, and she had nothing; but he turns out ill-tempered and exigeant, and wants a young woman, a beautiful young woman of five-and-twenty, to be as steady as himself.   (source)
    ill-tempered = rude or easily made angry
  • "And what a sweet-tempered forehead he has!" cried Louisa, — "so smooth — none of those frowning irregularities I dislike so much; and such a placid eye and smile!"   (source)
    sweet-tempered = not easily angered or upset
  • He was patient and friendly and even-tempered.†   (source)
  • "Not quite," said Scrimgeour, who looked bad tempered now.†   (source)
  • The sight amused Eragon; he had never known Roran to get so flustered, nor to be so short-tempered.†   (source)
  • At the hospital, Hall was known as a swift, quick-tempered, and unpredictable surgeon.†   (source)
  • He once rode a mare in heat against a foe mounted on a bad-tempered stallion.†   (source)
  • And he's been acting so different these days, so grumpy and short-tempered.†   (source)
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  • The Red Union had been tempered by the tumultuous experience of revolutionary tours around the country and seeing Chairman Mao in the great rallies in Tiananmen Square.†   (source)
  • Instinctively, they restrained their own enthusiasm, which tempered the enthusiasm of those in the mezzanine, which in turn tempered those in the balcony— until everyone in the house could sense that something was afoot.†   (source)
  • There are miracles, yes, mostly of a medical nature, a few to satisfy hungry stomachs; at best a storm is tempered, water is briefly walked upon.†   (source)
  • The lights dropped, so that our little table was less conspicuous, the overpowering fragrance of the flowers was tempered by the evening breezes, and the music and the wine and the dancing meant that in the most unlikely of places, we all began to actually enjoy ourselves.†   (source)
  • And Levi answered, "Peter, you have always been hot-tempered.†   (source)
  • In one hand she held an enormous suitcase, and tucked under the other was an old and evil-tempered bulldog.†   (source)
  • Mother had hit me sometimes because she was a very hot-tempered person, which means that she got angry more quickly than other people and she shouted more often.†   (source)
  • But that desire was tempered by fear of what he might find out about himself.†   (source)
  • Unlike their counterparts in Atlanta and Charleston, Savannah's civic leaders were practical businessmen, and their secessionist passions were tempered by a sobering awareness of the devastation that was about to befall them.†   (source)
  • "Miss Bloom may be hot-tempered, but she is one of my most trusted wards," she replied.†   (source)
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show 190 more examples with any meaning
  • And so, in 1954, my excitement over the new television at 80 Front Street was tempered by the baffling love of my grandmother and Owen Meany for Liberace.†   (source)
  • They both came back at six o'clock, harassed and foul-tempered, looking first for snacks and tea, later for a major dinner.†   (source)
  • "No sword is strong until it's been tempered," Lord Tywin declared.†   (source)
  • She could barely speak: the understanding that Lewis was not, in fact, cheating on her had been tempered by the knowledge of what he was actually spending his time doing these days.†   (source)
  • It was Boris I missed, the whole impulsive mess of him: gloomy, reckless, hot-tempered, appallingly thoughtless.†   (source)
  • He still retained a childlike belief in magic, tempered by an adult determination to exploit it.†   (source)
  • There was a bond between them now, welded in the brotherhood of battle and tempered by the loyalty Murtagh had shown.†   (source)
  • Forged in Jesuit logic and tempered in the cold bath of science, !†   (source)
  • They believed that money without knowledge was worthless, that education tempered with religion was the way to climb out of poverty in America, and over the years they were proven right.†   (source)
  • He is very good-tempered—and moreover, a good deal more intelligent than a lot of people.†   (source)
  • He is a mild-tempered man, he has never been given to outbursts, to rampages and violence.†   (source)
  • My dia was always patient and emotionally controlled, sometimes stubborn, and always good-tempered.†   (source)
  • There's a rush of elation, tempered with something else: a nameless dread.†   (source)
  • He was a young Marine, eager but tempered by the right we'd been waging the past week.†   (source)
  • He said that hot-tempered young men who listened not to the voices of their elders would bring a wrathy God down on their own heads.†   (source)
  • He's the handsome, sandy-haired type that people presume to be Scottish and energetic, though possibly fiery-tempered.†   (source)
  • Remember, Morgan was a SEAL, and his words, even to his twin brother, were tempered with humor, like all of our words among ourselves.†   (source)
  • But he also recognized that the wildness he sought would have to be tempered with excellent groundskeeping.†   (source)
  • But such moments were tempered by the long penumbra cast by Everest, which seemed to recede little with the passage of time.†   (source)
  • And she found in herself a sense of pity for Jamis—an emotion tempered by awareness of the immediate peril to her son.†   (source)
  • Rob had greeted their idea of a final Sharp Cereal Professor ad with tempered enthusiasm, saying that he could knock it a mile ...always assuming he was given the chance.†   (source)
  • Trueba had not seen her since Clara's death, but he recognized her by her voice, which still sounded like an enchanted flute, and by her perfume of wild violets, which, although somewhat tempered by time, was still noticeable even at a distance.†   (source)
  • He is not in the least a cruel or ill —tempered man.†   (source)
  • She could sense the stillness in the room, everyone watching her: Magnus with his ancient, tempered curiosity; Alec too preoccupied with his own problems to care much for hers; Luke hopefully; and Jace with a cold, frightening blankness.†   (source)
  • She also told him that the best samurai swords are tempered over and over again in the hottest flames and people too are made strong and excellent when they go through life's difficulties.†   (source)
  • She is a gaunt, trouser-wearing, woolen-shirted, cowboy-booted, ginger-colored, gingery-tempered woman of unrevealed ("That's for me to know, and you to guess") but promptly revealed opinions, most of which are announced in a voice rooster-crow altitude and penetration.†   (source)
  • And that makes my sweetums so foul tempered.†   (source)
  • The August heat is tempered by a cool sea breeze.†   (source)
  • They, too, like the hillside jungle, were tumultuous with evening, but from the remote height turned to stillness, their fierceness tempered by the air that lay between.†   (source)
  • For Miles and Missy, however, it did, and it was in some ways more powerful than love experienced by older people, since it wasn't tempered by the realities of life.†   (source)
  • After some thought she decided on a Rosfors kitchen table of solid beechwood with a tabletop of tempered glass and four colourful kitchen chairs.†   (source)
  • My own yearnings for footsie were severely tempered by my fear of the guards.†   (source)
  • By the looks of it, with its main lodge built of stacked giant redwoods and arcing windows of tempered glass, the guests here were not exactly into self-denial.†   (source)
  • Hot-tempered.†   (source)
  • In the tempered light and the extremely favouring costume of the hour, she looked almost pretty.†   (source)
  • He tempered the approval later, when we were alone.†   (source)
  • But that excitement was tempered by guilt and even sadness.†   (source)
  • This was tempered a bit by General Holland M. Smith's somber front-page quote that made plain the scale of the bloodletting: "The fight is the toughest we've run across in 168 years."†   (source)
  • It should be sharp and not tempered so it will break.†   (source)
  • I'm quiet-tempered by nature, but anger boiled up inside me.†   (source)
  • Stocks are bound to react to the news, but the gains may be tempered by the announcement that the firm's Ohio plant will close in the interests of focusing on the Raison Vaccine, developed by the Bangkok facility.†   (source)
  • Marshall judged Adams a "sensible, plain, candid, good tempered man," while Adams wrote of Marshall, "he is a plain man, very sensible, cautious, and learned in the law of nations."†   (source)
  • Still, that suspicion is being tempered by her desire for me to get some sort of life.†   (source)
  • As I rode that morning, smelling the scent of the hoof-crushed heather, feeling the wind needle my face until it tingled, I understood that where Michael Mompellion had been broken by our shared ordeal, in equal measure I had been tempered and made strong.†   (source)
  • A Latin skin, its hue tempered generations ago by ancestors living in or around the Mediterranean.†   (source)
  • But the news was tempered by that dulling, heavy weariness — as if every present thing were connected to his aching legs — and by the feeling that he'd bridled at since arriving in New York, that he was being forced into the position of a child.†   (source)
  • A finely tempered nature longs to escape from his noisy cramped surroundings into the silence of the high mountains where the eye ranges freely through the still pure air and fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity.†   (source)
  • Mimi was strict; our kids were allowed one out-going call per day and max of ninety seconds on a call, with rising scale of punishment—tempered by her warmth in granting exceptions.†   (source)
  • Lucky and Jose realized that Cesar wasn't going to win this confrontation so they went out and pulled their hot-tempered coach back to the dugout.†   (source)
  • Unless consumed by the lust for power, which was a very dangerous thing, the true mages tempered their experiments with caution and rarely caused disasters.†   (source)
  • Bessie and the other factory girls cheer wildly for her—not with the polite, tempered applause of drawing rooms but with the boisterous, joyful whoops of the music hall.†   (source)
  • She huffed, kicked bad-temperedly at the desk.†   (source)
  • Chamberlain thought: There are no good-tempered generals.†   (source)
  • Most of them were hot tempered—though they blamed diabetes for this whenever possible.†   (source)
  • Abbe' Mably says that the popular government, so tempestuous elsewhere, caused no disorders in the members of the Achaean republic, because it was tempered by the laws of the confederacy.†   (source)
  • Even the pile of debris outside Ralph's rooming house window turned picturesque, its jagged rustiness tempered into drifts, swoops, and in one corner, a series of pretty balls, like a snowman laid down for a nap.†   (source)
  • Our bodies were hard and tempered.†   (source)
  • They were favored animals, not starved, but well furred, the golden hair tempered with black guard hairs.†   (source)
  • When the January storms tempered a little, Mark managed to reach the other villages for the first time in a month, and he stopped at the float store to pick up the mail sack for the village.†   (source)
  • You should have seen her before her illness, such a good-tempered child—ANNIE [AGREEABLY]: She's changed.†   (source)
  • And whatever extraneous influence the tannery may have exercised, the calamities of the land belong to it alone, born of wind and rain and weather, immensities not to be tempered by man or his creations.†   (source)
  • Misfortune and ordeals had tempered characters, prepared them for great, desperate, heroic exploits.†   (source)
  • "Then take that," said Reepicheep, "and that — to teach you manners — and the respect due to a knight — and a Mouse — and a Mouse's tail —" and at each word he gave Eustace a blow with the side of his rapier, which was thin, fine dwarf-tempered steel and as supple and effective as a birch rod.†   (source)
  • Let the word go forth from this time and place, tofriend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.†   (source)
  • The baron was always a hot-tempered man.†   (source)
  • Her frustration was now tempered by rising curiosity.†   (source)
  • In his right hand he carried a meter-long sword that looked to be of tempered steel.†   (source)
  • Young, hot-tempered Marq Piper urged a strike west at Casterly Rock instead.†   (source)
  • Tempered with his wife's blood if Votar can be believed.†   (source)
  • Sympathy tempered Oromis's gaze, though his voice was firm.†   (source)
  • When he spoke, his voice was soft and low, an aging baritone tempered by a southern accent.†   (source)
  • Alarm tempered Eragon's excitement at hearing of the ore's existence.†   (source)
  • Thirteen months of nonviolence hadn't tempered their instincts for defense.†   (source)
  • It should be tempered and made stronger.†   (source)
  • It was just a necessary evil, tempered by junk food and perpetual tardies.†   (source)
  • Arya laughed, and her voice rang like well-tempered steel.†   (source)
  • A surreal energy permeated the hall— brisk professionalism tempered by fear and excitement.†   (source)
  • Mahtob's disappointment was tempered by the stream of booty that eventually came her way.†   (source)
  • He was tested, tempered, and tried before he was deemed fit to rule.†   (source)
  • Melisandre said, "Azor Ahai tempered Lightbringer with the heart's blood of his own beloved wife.†   (source)
  • "An old black tomcat with a torn ear," Cersei told him "A filthy thing, and foul-tempered.†   (source)
  • The revelation that the Horde was on their doorstep seemed to have tempered the crowd's nerve.†   (source)
  • She's generous and thoughtful and good-tempered.†   (source)
  • I think you acted with wisdom and I was happy that you tempered justice with mercy.†   (source)
  • Cool-tempered but naive.†   (source)
  • A man so despised, so foul tempered, so robotically inflexible that on the last day of eighth grade we defaced his yearbook picture with staples and left it like an effigy behind his seat.†   (source)
  • The man loved the opulence of the ship, just as he loved Pullman Palace cars and giant fireplaces, but his foot problem tempered his enjoyment.†   (source)
  • When rough weather abates, and it becomes clear that you have survived the sky's attack and the sea's treachery, your jubilation is tempered by the rage that so much fresh water should fall directly into the sea and by the worry that it is the last rain you will ever see, that you will die of thirst before the next drops fall.†   (source)
  • The Governor's wife wears an expression of yearning piety, tempered with resignation, whereas Reverend Verringer manages to look both benign and disapproving; there's a glinting around his eyes as if he's wearing spectacles, although he is not.†   (source)
  • Ser Lyn was a different sort of folly; lean and handsome, heir to an ancient but impoverished house, but vain, reckless, hot-tempered ...and, it was whispered, notoriously uninterested in the intimate charms of women.†   (source)
  • McDermott was cleaning the shoes; he'd been sullen during our supper, and said why couldn't we have proper cooked food, like the steaks with new peas the others had eaten, and I said new peas did not grow on trees, and he ought to know who would have the first choice of them, as there had only been enough for two; and in any case I was Mr. Kinnear's servant, not his; and he said that if I was his I would not last long, as I was such a foul-tempered witch, and the only cure for me was the end of a belt; and I said ill words butter no parsnips.†   (source)
  • The celebrations were tempered, however, by the fact that Harrison had lost by the narrowest of margins, fewer than four thousand votes.†   (source)
  • For Geyer, finding the girls was "one of the most satisfactory events of my life," but his satisfaction was tempered by the fact that Howard remained missing.†   (source)
  • Clinton tempered his tone.†   (source)
  • He supposed he ought to be grateful they were here at all, even if grief did tend to make Maryse more sharp-tempered than usual.†   (source)
  • At the same time, however, it grieves me a little now to see how Sunny has tempered herself, or worse, been thus tempered by her life, how my standing by and letting her leave at such a young age has led her, somehow, right back to this wan town and wan mall, to sit here with this innocently crouched old man who once tried to conduct himself like her father and not despise him to his death.†   (source)
  • The last time he had come home from a date with Maia, he had found Elaine in the foyer, sitting in a chair facing the door, her arms crossed over her chest and a look of barely tempered rage on her face.†   (source)
  • In the Reach men said it was the food that made Dornishmen so hot-tempered and their women so wild and wanton.†   (source)
  • My equipment was a sturdy line made from yarn I'd stored up over the years, tempered by weight—a comb, or a deck of cards, depending on what I was angling for.†   (source)
  • Another thought tempered her elation.†   (source)
  • Sebastian's face tempered her father's hard features with her mother's prettiness; he was tall but less broad-shouldered, more lithe and catlike.†   (source)
  • On his head went his padded leather cap, followed by his coif of tempered steel and then his gold and silver helm.†   (source)
  • Let the word go forth from this time and place, from friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage ...†   (source)
  • I glanced down to discover I was not walking on grass, but on a ground that looked like tempered glass after it's been shattered, like the cracked, parched landscape of a desert.†   (source)
  • Readers must have been heartened as the news proclaimed: VOLCANO IS SEIZED—MARINES PUT FLAG ATOP SURIBACHI'S CREST, but any joy was tempered by JAPANESE HIT BACK—OUR CASUALTIES AT5,372.†   (source)
  • He had a reputation for being hot-tempered and tough, which was perhaps a euphemism for the fact that he employed methods that were not quite by the book.†   (source)
  • Still, a curious defensiveness tempered her elation, as though she was self-conscious before the Eldunari.†   (source)
  • He was a hot-tempered boy from Greensboro who had won the undivided attention of the cadre by quitting the Institute and then returning two days later.†   (source)
  • It was a deserved nickname, as she was foul-mouthed and foul-tempered and disrespected just about everyone and everything.†   (source)
  • There was an ugly bruise on the left cheekbone, but that was the only blemish upon a pale, handsome face whose youth had been tempered by hard experience.†   (source)
  • She too rejoiced at the victory, but then a sense of foreboding and disquiet tempered her celebratory mood as she pictured elves-especially ones as strong as Blodhgarm-invading human homes.†   (source)
  • The humiliation of wearing a uniform, even if it was blue, and deceiving people was tempered by the genuine lift which came of having her own money rather than receiving an allowance like a child.†   (source)
  • With three swift strokes of her colorless blade, the herbalist sliced through Arya's remaining cuffs, as if the tempered metal were no harder than cheese.†   (source)
  • Davos was remembering a tale Salladhor Saan had told him, of how Azor Ahai tempered Lightbringer by thrusting it through the heart of the wife he loved.†   (source)
  • One was the serjeant called Scar, a black-tempered brute with a head as smooth as stone and the shoulders of an ox.†   (source)
  • Eragon had expected Rhunon to relinquish her hold on his body after they had forged, hardened, and tempered the blade, but to his surprise, she remained in his mind and continued to control his limbs.†   (source)
  • Still overwhelmed by Nasuada's revelation, and finding his anger tempered by it, Eragon slowly walked back to Saphira.†   (source)
  • The painful condition of their skin tempered their use of armor, but these shin guards had been layered with a soft cloth to minimize the friction.†   (source)
  • Releasing the buckler with his right hand but still holding on with his left, Eragon drew back his arm and struck the shield as hard as he could, punching through the tempered steel as easily as if it were made of rotten wood.†   (source)
  • The army was an imposingsight, but Eragon's admiration was tempered by his observation of the warriors' notched swords, dented helms, and battered shields, as well as the poorly repaired rents in their padded tunics and mail hauberks.†   (source)
  • The human or elf becomes stronger and fairer, while some of the dragon's fiercer traits are tempered by a more reasoned outlook...I see a thought biting at your tongue, Eragon.†   (source)
  • Lady Olenna was not about to let Joff harm her precious darling granddaughter, but unlike her son she also realized that under all his flowers and finery, Ser Loras is as hot-tempered as Jaime Lannister.†   (source)
  • Giants of any sort are now so rare in England and so few giants are good-tempered that ten to one you have never seen a giant when his face is beaming†   (source)
  • He was a short, broad-shouldered young man, with good-tempered blue eyes.†   (source)
  • We hear a drumming on the roofs of a fasting city when the Turks are hungry and uncertain tempered.†   (source)
  • I am not seeking to abandon duty, but if justice could be tempered with mercy...†   (source)
  • Couldn't you find someone more easy-tempered?†   (source)
  • The green jalousies let in a tempered light.†   (source)
  • His wild bombast was tempered now by senile petulance.†   (source)
  • My relief at Maxim's arrival would be tempered by the fear they might say something indiscreet, and I became dumb at once, a set smile on my lips, my hands in my lap.†   (source)
  • "You are, yes you are," said I. We were in this woodwork bower, you see, of the Chinese restaurant, and all seemed right, good-tempered, friendly.†   (source)
  • As I reflected, passages of Mozart's Cassations, of Bach's Well-tempered Clavier came to my mind and it seemed to me that all through this music there was the radiance of this cool starry brightness and the quivering of this clearness of ether.†   (source)
  • His attitude was based on justice tempered by expediency—or perhaps more accurately, expediency tempered by justice.†   (source)
  • We must be tempered in the fire.†   (source)
  • his own clairvoyant will tempered to amoral evil's undeviating absolute by the black willing blood with which be had crossed it) replica of his own which he had created and decreed to preside upon his absence, as you might watch a wild distracted nightbound bird flutter into the brazen and fatal lamp.†   (source)
  • He was bitter now, where he had been pleasantly jeering, brutal where his thrusts had once been tempered with humor.†   (source)
  • the eyes but the heart marks and calls the beat and measure for, to disappear slowly beyond some bush or shrub starred with white bloom—jasmine, spiraea, honeysuckle, perhaps myriad scentless unpickable Cherokee roses—names, blooms which Shreve possibly had never heard and never seen although the air had blown over him first which became tempered to nourish them—and it would not matter here that the time had been winter in that garden too and hence no bloom nor leaf even if there had been someone to walk there and be seen there since, judged by subsequent events, it had been night in the garden also.†   (source)
  • She was beautiful, sanguine, hot-tempered, demanding, impulsive, acquisitive, charming—she had all the proper qualities for a man-eater.†   (source)
  • But she did not possess his sense of humor which tempered his malice, nor his smile that jeered at himself even while he was jeering others.†   (source)
  • Ostensibly getting ready to occupy himself with a piece of work while we were away—the files and information were laid out for him—he was unhurried, engaging, and smooth-tempered in his tortoise-shell specs, answering every last question in full and even detaining the excursion to have some last words with his father about frontages or improvements.†   (source)
  • Jim Trivett, the son of a rich tobacco farmer in the eastern part of the State, was a good tempered young tough of twenty years.†   (source)
  • As she lay in the summer light, tempered by the shades and the catalpa of the front yard, flat on her back with compresses, towels, rags, she had a considerable altitude of trunk, the soles of her feet shining from the sheets like graphite rubbings, feet of war disasters in the ruined villages of Napoleon's Spanish campaign; flies riding in echelon on the long string of the light switch.†   (source)
  • In his mild-tempered way, Will had straightened out several difficulties of this kind and said nothing to her about them.†   (source)
  • He composed dozens of personal memoirs, into which quietly, humorously, with fine-tempered English restraint, he poured the full measure of his pure crusading heart.†   (source)
  • She was hot-tempered and easily plagued by the frequent scrapes of her four sons, and while no one was permitted to whip a horse or a slave, she felt that a lick now and then didn't do the boys any harm.†   (source)
  • If Charles had inherited any of the qualities of the stern, fearless, hot-tempered soldier who had been his father, they had been obliterated in childhood by the ladylike atmosphere in which he had been reared.†   (source)
  • His conception of university life was a romantic blur, evoked from his reading and tempered with memories of Stover at Yale, Young Fred Fearnot, and jolly youths with affectionate linked arms, bawling out a cheer-song.†   (source)
  • Men watched him with eyes in which lurked amusement tempered by alarm.†   (source)
  • The city beat a good many drums, but seemed good-tempered.†   (source)
  • Gerty sparkled too; or at least shone with a tempered radiance.†   (source)
  • Once she had entreated him to become her kind of a cowboy—a man in whom reason tempered passion.†   (source)
  • 'Girls,' said Peter, 'are always so hasty tempered.'†   (source)
  • She actually began to wonder also if she was "nasty tempered."†   (source)
  • Mother's a good-tempered woman but she gets fair moithered.†   (source)
  • Be equally good-tempered to me, old boy!†   (source)
  • It's a remnant of a higher-tempered time; one ought to cling to it.†   (source)
  • These sour-tempered folks are mostly handy at business, and know pretty well what they are about.†   (source)
  • That he was not a good-tempered man had been her firmest opinion.†   (source)
  • On the contrary he was bright and good-tempered.†   (source)
  • She is pretty, and she is good tempered, and that is all.†   (source)
  • Three punctures were made in the heathen flesh, and the White Whale's barbs were then tempered.†   (source)
  • 'The worst-tempered bit of a sickly slip that ever struggled into its teens.†   (source)
  • The tempered light of the woods is like a perpetual morning, and is stimulating and heroic.†   (source)
  • But my children are all good-tempered, thank God.†   (source)
  • 'And he's better tempered, and Henchard's a fool to him,' they say.†   (source)
  • It is the crown tempered by the cotton night-cap.†   (source)
  • "I don't know what you mean by a higher-tempered time," said Newman.†   (source)
  • A good-tempered waggoner's patience has limits, and Tim was not to be urged further.†   (source)
  • Not that Mr. Stelling was a harsh-tempered or unkind man; quite the contrary.†   (source)
  • That he is a hot-tempered man—a little proud—perhaps ambitious; but not a bad man.†   (source)
  • I believe he is one of the very best-tempered men that ever existed.†   (source)
  • I was a good-enough-tempered man once, I believe.†   (source)
  • This manner of procedure was good-tempered.†   (source)
  • He was good-tempered, had not much to say for himself, was not clever by any means, thank goodness—wrote my friend.†   (source)
  • If Mrs. Beaufort had not taken the tone that such misfortunes (the word was her own) were "the test of friendship," compassion for her might have tempered the general indignation against her husband.†   (source)
  • I had seen the captain, and Black Dog, and the blind man, Pew, and I thought I knew what a buccaneer was like—a very different creature, according to me, from this clean and pleasant-tempered landlord.†   (source)
  • The air down here, tempered by the thick damp bed of tenacious clay, was not as it had been above, but soft and relaxing, so that when he had walked a mile or two he was obliged to wipe his face with his handkerchief.†   (source)
  • But I was conscious of the practical wisdom, of what would be called nowadays the realism with which she tempered the ardent idealism of my grandmother's nature, and I knew that now the mischief was done she would prefer to let me enjoy the soothing pleasure of her company, and not to disturb my father again.†   (source)
  • Mr. Hubbard was a florid, red-whiskered little man, whose admiration for art was considerably tempered by the inveterate impecuniosity of most of the artists who dealt with him.†   (source)
  • Lady Britomart is a woman of fifty or thereabouts, well dressed and yet careless of her dress, well bred and quite reckless of her breeding, well mannered and yet appallingly outspoken and indifferent to the opinion of her interlocutory, amiable and yet peremptory, arbitrary, and high-tempered to the last bearable degree, and withal a very typical managing matron of the upper class, treated as a naughty child until she grew into a scolding mother, and finally settling down with plenty of practical ability and worldly experience, limited in the oddest way with domestic and class limitations, conceiving the universe exactly as if it wer†   (source)
  • She laughed a great deal, was cheerful and good-tempered, and enjoyed the pleasant things of life frankly.†   (source)
  • I found some of it hard to endure, though I am a mild-tempered man; but, certainly, when I told the captain to "shut up" I had forgotten that I was merely a bit of human flotsam, cut off from my resources and with my fare unpaid; a mere casual dependant on the bounty, or speculative enterprise, of the ship.†   (source)
  • Every one in Starkfield knew him and gave him a greeting tempered to his own grave mien; but his taciturnity was respected and it was only on rare occasions that one of the older men of the place detained him for a word.†   (source)
  • To his fellow prospectors he was known as "Slim," the worst-tempered and most restless of all their company.†   (source)
  • Jim Fletcher attached himself to the stranger, and now both respect and friendliness tempered his asperity.†   (source)
  • How can you look round at these august hills, look up at this divine sky, taste this finely tempered air, and then talk like a literary hack on a second floor in Bloomsbury?†   (source)
  • It was a rookery which had never been raided by the hunters, and in consequence the seals were mild-tempered and at the same time unafraid.†   (source)
  • Bo's hot-tempered.†   (source)
  • She shows up here quite unannounced, a matron three heads taller than I, white-haired and hot-tempered, doesn't say a word, but gives our Herr Anton a few quick boxes on the ear, grabs him by the collar, and sets him on the train.†   (source)
  • Mr. Hempseed shook his head with an infinity of wisdom, tempered by deeply-rooted mistrust of the British climate and the British Government.†   (source)
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