contemper
Verb

contemper (contempers, present participle contempering; past and past participle contempered)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To modify or temper; to allay; to qualify; to moderate or soften.
    • 1658, Thomas Browne, “Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall. […]. Chapter 1.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: Printed for Hen[ry] Brome […], OCLC 48702491 ↗; reprinted as Hydriotaphia (The English Replicas), New York, N.Y.: Payson & Clarke Ltd., 1927, OCLC 78413388 ↗, page 3 ↗:
      Though earth hath engroſſed the name yet water hath proved the ſmarteſt grave; which in forty dayes ſwallowed almoſt mankinde, and the living creation ; Fiſhes not wholly eſcaping, except the Salt Ocean were handſomely contempered by a mixture of the freſh Element.
    • The antidotes […] have allayed its bitterness and contempered its malignancy.
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