Untempered

ppl. a. [UN-¹ 8. Cf. MDu. ongetempert, Du. ongetemperd, MHG. ungetempert.]

  1.  Unregulated; not moderated or controlled.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. IX. 102. Wolde neuere þe faithful fader his fithel were vntempred.

a. 1547.  Surrey, Eccl., v. 52. What lyef leede testeye men that consume their dayes In inwarde freets, untempred hates.

1561.  Norton & Sackv., Gorboduc, III. i. Your eldest sonne, misledd By traitours framde of young vntempered wittes Assembleth force against your yonger sonne.

1631.  A. Wilson, Swisser, III. ii. I wilbee your Stickler, You too vntemper’d Vermin!

1808.  Wm. Mitford, Hist. Greece, I. 584. Every untempered government must be jealous. Ibid., III. 72. The spirit of party will pervade a state with … untempered and lasting violence.

  b.  Unmodified, unqualified. Freq. const. by.

1768–74.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 603. The utmost rigour of legal justice untempered by equity.

1794.  S. Williams, Vermont, 203. The spirit of monarchy, untempered by representation.

1847.  H. Rogers, Ess. (1860), I. 240. His eyes ache with that too untempered brilliance.

1868.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., x. II. 481. Rigid justice, untempered by mercy.

  2.  Of lime or mortar: Not properly mixed and prepared. Also in fig. context.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., III. 395. Vntempred lime yf with the graffes be Putte in the plages.

1535.  Coverdale, Ezek. xiii. 11. Y^e wall, that ye haue dawbed with vntempered morter.

1637.  Gillespie, Eng. Pop. Cerem., III. i. 7. He laboureth to plaister over his Superstition with the vntempered morter of this quidditative distinction.

1661.  Cowley, Cromwell, Wks. 1906, II. 362. That none of these untempered Mortars can hold out against the next blast of Wind.

1755.  Young, Centaur, v. 311. This castle was built out of the various ruins of many demolish’d forts of infidelity,… and cemented with untemper’d mortar.

1826.  Southey, Vind. Eccl. Angl., 44. I have not been labouring in the quarries for thirty years, that I should build with untempered mortar.

1896.  A. D. Coleridge, Eton in Forties, 8. His gloves … [being] bedaubed … with untempered mortar.

  transf.  1781.  Cowper, Hope, 627. To storm the citadels they build in air, And smite th’ untemper’d wall, ’tis death to spare.

  b.  Not properly digested or concocted.

1822.  Good, Study Med., II. 757. The untempered fluid contained in the tubercles. Ibid., IV. 695. A defective secretion of the rete mucosum, which … seems to be … untempered or imperfectly elaborated.

  c.  Unhardened.

1820.  Good, Syst. Nosology, 427. Bones untempered in their substance, and incapable of affording their proper support.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 322. A screw of untempered steel.

1839.  Noad, Electricity, 239. A disc of untempered steel.