1. Made hard, flexible or resilient especially by heat treatment
   "tempered glass"; "a sword of tempered steel";
   - treated, hardened, toughened
    
2. Adjusted or attuned by adding a counterbalancing element
   "criticism tempered with kindly sympathy"

1. Make more temperate, acceptable, or suitable by adding something else
   "she tempered her criticism";
   - season, mollify, moderate
    
2. Change by restraining or moderating
   "Experience tempered her youthful idealism";
   - chasten
    
3. Bring to a desired consistency, texture, or hardness by a process of gradually heating and cooling
   "temper glass";
   - anneal, normalize, normalise [Brit]
    
4. Harden by reheating and cooling in oil
   "temper steel";
   - harden
    
5. Adjust the pitch (of pianos)
   "The piano tuner tempered the instrument before the concert"

See also: curable, sunbaked

Type of: adjust, alter, change, correct, harden, indurate, modify, set, weaken

Antonym: untempered

Encyclopedia: Tempered