tempering

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of temper.

   The blacksmith was tempering the blade in his forge late into the night.

   Tempering the eggs with a little hot milk keeps them from scrambling in the custard.

   Note

   The object usually tells the meanings apart, since the verb spans feelings, metal and the kitchen: tempering criticism with praise, tempering a blade in the forge, tempering eggs with hot milk, tempering spices in hot oil. After be it is the verb in progress (the smith was tempering the blade); on its own it can name the process as a gerund (tempering keeps the eggs from scrambling).

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act or process by which something is tempered, as steel is by heat treatment.

   Careful tempering left the spring steel tough rather than brittle.

   The new pastry chef's tempering of the chocolate was flawless, with a glossy finish and a crisp snap.

   Similarhardening, toughening

   Note

   The noun usually names the process as a whole (careful tempering, the tempering of chocolate), but it can count repeated treatments too, with the plural temperings. Louis Emmanuel Gruner's The Manufacture of Steel reports the curious finding that a bar of steel grows shorter under successive temperings while it widens, so that its volume actually increases.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   In pottery and building, a non-plastic material such as sand that is added to clay to keep it from shrinking and cracking as it dries or is fired.

   Ground-up pottery fragments served as tempering in many of the vessels found at the site.

   The builders packed the wall frame with a stiff mix of clay and coarse tempering.

   Note

   Potters also call this material simply temper. Coarse grains such as sand, grit or crushed shell open up the clay so that water can escape as it dries, which keeps the body from shrinking unevenly or cracking in the fire. Builders used it as well: Barry Cunliffe's Danebury Hillfort describes clay and tempering packed around a pole with plenty of water.

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