Both Uses of
tempered
in
Catch-22
- '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.†
Chpt 9 *bad-tempered = tending to get angry or annoyed easily
- The news killed his mother, who just lost her will to live and wasted away and died, which was just fine with his father, who had decided to marry the bad-tempered girl at the A&P if he had to and who had not been optimistic about his chances of getting his wife off the land without paying her some money or flogging her.†
Chpt 9
Definitions:
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(1)
(tempered as in: bad news tempered by kindness) made less extreme
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(2)
(tempered as in: tempered steel) made stronger or more flexible by heat treatment -- often of steel or glass
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(3)
(tempered as in: short-tempered) having a typical mood or temperament -- often in reference to how easily one is angered