tempered

adj

1. (in-compounds, not-comparable)Having a specified disposition or temper.

   “even-tempered”

   “The Pyncheon Elm, throughout its great circumference, was all alive, and full of the morning sun and a sweet-tempered little breeze, which lingered within this verdant sphere, and set a thousand leafy tongues a-whispering all at once. This aged tree appeared to have suffered nothing from the gale.”

2. (not-comparable)Pertaining to the metallurgical process for finishing metals.

   “"Not forged!" and snatching Perth's levelled iron from the crotch, Ahab held it out, exclaiming — "Look ye, Nantucketer; here in this hand I hold his death! Tempered in blood, and tempered by lightning are these barbs; and I swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the fin, where the white whale most feels his accursed life!"”

3. (not-comparable)Pertaining to the industrial process for toughening glass, or to such toughened glass.
4. (not-comparable)Moderated or balanced by other considerations.

   “The downcast eye, the rosy blush, the retiring grace, are all proper in their season; but modesty, being the child of reason, cannot long exist with the sensibility that is not tempered by reflection.”

   “[N]obody knows how the wind is tempered to shorn Irish lambs, and in what marvellous places they find pasture.”

5. (not-comparable)Pertaining to the well-tempered scale, where the twelve notes per octave of the standard keyboard are tuned in such a way that it is possible to play music in any major or minor key and it will not sound perceptibly out of tune.

verb

1. (form-of, participle, past)simple past and past participle of temper