tempering

top

WORDNET DICTIONARY

Noun tempering has 1 sense

tempering(n = noun.act) annealing - hardening something by heat treatment;

is a kind of hardening

Derived forms verb temper₂, verb temper₁

Adjective tempering has 1 sense

tempering(s = adj.all) - moderating by making more temperate;

top

CIDE DICTIONARY

tempering, n.

The process of giving the requisite degree of hardness or softness to a substance, as iron and steel; especially, the process of giving to steel the degree of hardness required for various purposes, consisting usually in first plunging the article, when heated to redness, in cold water or other liquid, to give an excess of hardness, and then reheating it gradually until the hardness is reduced or drawn down to the degree required, as indicated by the color produced on a polished portion, or by the burning of oil. [1913 Webster]

Tempering color, the shade of color that indicates the degree of temper in tempering steel, as pale straw yellow for lancets, razors, and tools for metal; dark straw yellow for penknives, screw taps, etc.; brown yellow for axes, chisels, and plane irons; yellow tinged with purple for table knives and shears; purple for swords and watch springs; blue for springs and saws; and very pale blue tinged with green, too soft for steel instruments.

top

THESAURUS

tempering

abatement, abating, ability, aging, allaying, allayment, alleviating, alleviation, arteriosclerosis, assuagement, assuaging, atherosclerosis, background, blaseness, blunting, calcification, callusing, calming, capability, case hardening, chastening, chisel temper, competence, competency, concretion, condition, cornification, crystallization, cushioning, dampening, damping, dash, deadening, demulsion, development, die temper, diminishing, diminution, dulcification, dulling, easing, experience, falling-off, firming, fitness, fittedness, fortification, fossilization, granulation, hardening, hardness scale, heat treating, hint, hornification, hushing, indenter, induration, infusion, inkling, intimation, invigoration, lapidification, leniency, lessening, letdown, letup, lightening, lithification, loosening, lulling, mastery, maturation, maturescence, maturity, mellowing, mitigating, mitigation, modulation, mollification, ossification, pacification, palliation, past experience, petrifaction, petrification, practical knowledge, practice, precipitation hardening, preparedness, proficiency, qualification, quietening, quieting, razor temper, readiness, reducing, reduction, refreshment, reinforcement, reinvigoration, relaxation, relaxing, remission, restrengthening, revivification, ripeness, ripening, sagacity, sauce, saw file temper, sclerosis, seasoning, senescence, set temper, setting, shade, slackening, smack, softening, solidification, soothing, sophistication, soupcon, spice, spindle temper, sprinkling, steeling, stiffening, strengthening, subduement, subduing, suggestion, suitability, suitableness, suitedness, suspicion, taint, temper, thought, tinct, tincture, tinge, tint, tool temper, touch, toughening, trace, tranquilization, trim, vestige, vitrifaction, vitrification, worldly wisdom