Definition of "tempered" []

• Having a specified temper or disposition. Often used in combination: sweet-tempered; ill-tempered. (adjective)
• Adjusted or attuned by the addition of a counterbalancing element; moderated or measured: "prepare the country to expect hard choices and to appreciate tempered values and moderation in private and public life” ( Haynes Johnson). (adjective)
• Made appropriately hard or flexible by tempering: a sword of tempered steel. (adjective)
• Having the requisite degree of hardness or elasticity. Used of glass or a metal. (adjective)
• Music Tuned to temperament. Used of a scale, an interval, semitone, or intonation. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One of the reasons why the debate about this year's Hugos has been so ferocious and (at times) ill-tempered is because while there are no pluckily ambitious outsiders to root for (such as Watts 'Blindsight in 2007 or McDonald's Brazyl in 2008), the list is also ignoring breakthrough genre successes such as Stephenie Meyer and Laurel K. Hamilton."
• "Hot-tempered is cliche for someone that later develops heat-based powers."
• "His person was large, his expression tempered of gravity, affection and truth, on which the eye rested with confidence."