temper

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a disposition to exhibit uncontrolled anger

   Their temper was well known to all their employees.

2. 2
   noun

   a sudden outburst of anger

   My temper sparked like damp firewood.

3. 3
   noun

   a characteristic, habitual or relatively temporary, state of feeling

   Whether they praised or cursed me depended on their temper at the time.

4. 4
   verb

   harden by reheating and cooling in oil

   temper steel

5. 5
   verb

   bring to a desired consistency, texture, or hardness by a process of gradually heating and cooling

   temper glass

6. 6
   noun

   A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting.

   to have a good, bad, or calm temper

7. 7
   noun

   State of mind; mood.

   Remember with what mild / And gracious temper he both heard and judg’d / Without wrauth or reviling;

8. 8
   noun

   A tendency to become angry.

   to have a hasty temper

Etymology

From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ġetemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temperō (“(transitive) to divide or proportion duly, to moderate, to regulate; (intransitive) to be moderate, temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal.