temperance

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions; restrained or moderate indulgence.

   “temperance in eating and drinking”

   “temperance in the indulgence of joy”

   “Who did begin their Feaſtes with Prayers; continue them with Temperance, and Sobrietie; eating no more then would ſuffice their hunger; drinking no more then would quench and ſatisfie their thirſt […]”

   “On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes, that I might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic, had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion.”

   “But there was no one to shake Nero into temperance. He had affairs, drank tremendously, raised taxes in the provinces to pay for his indulgences, and started once again to hold the infamous treason trials as Caligula had done.”

2. (countable, uncountable)Moderation, and sometimes abstinence, in respect to using intoxicating liquors.

   “Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, was the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorrigible, and therefore must be turned adrift and damned without remedy in order that the grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate then, and to all mankind some hundreds of years thereafter.”

   “So now the frauds reckoned they was out of danger, and they begun to work the villages again. ¶ First they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn't make enough for them both to get drunk on.”

   “Public-houses, besides their usual exhortation against temperance reform, invited men to “Join our Christmas goose club”—one bottle of gin, etc., or two, according to subscription.”

   “Evangelists organized an association for each issue—temperance, education, Sabbath observance, antidueling, and later antislavery; collectively these groups formed a national web of benevolent and moral reform societies.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Moderation of passion; calmness.

   “[…] in the verie Torrent, Tempeſt, and (as I may ſay) the Whirle-winde of Paſſion, you muſt acquire and beget a Temperance that may giue it Smoothneſſe.”

   “Enough, you stand a traitor by my hearth, / And yet I draw not! Sir, I cannot pledge / This temperance long; the path of safety’s there.”

   “What was the government doing keeping schools open when our closest neighbours – Ireland, France, Germany, Spain and Italy – had already closed theirs? […] Those who were being charitable asked for temperance. Our government surely had a credible plan? Somewhere. Right?”

4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)State with regard to heat or cold; temperature.

   “It [the climate] must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance.”

name

1. A female given name from English.
2. The fourteenth trump or major arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks.