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Tempered; proportioned; properly adapted. Hope must be . . . attemperate to the promise. Hammond.

Having an air of authority; positive; dictatorial; peremptory; as, an authoritative tone. The mock authoritative manner of the one, and the insipid mirth of the other. Swift. -- Au*thor"i*ta*tive*ly, adv -- Au*thor"i*ta*tive*ness, n.

f Peru, a reddish brown, syrupy balsam, obtained from a Central American tree ( Myroxylon Pereiræ and used as a stomachic and expectorant, and in the treatment of ulcers, etc. It was long supposed to be a product of Peru. -- Balsam of Tolu, a reddish or yellowish brown semisolid or solid balsam, obtained from a South…

A perennial herbaceous plant of almost treelike size (Musa sapientum); also, its edible fruit. See Musa.

Destruction; death. [Obs.] The cup of deception spiced and tempered to their bane. Milton.

A soft fabric with a kind of basket weave and a diapered pattern.

To grow fat; to grow fat in ease and luxury; to glut one's self. Dryden. The pampered monarch lay battening in ease. Garth. Skeptics, with a taste for carrion, who batten on the hideous facts in history, -- persecutions, inquisitions. Emerson.

An imposition; a trick. [Obs.] Chaucer. Beard grass (Bot.), a coarse, perennial grass of different species of the genus Andropogon. -- To one's beard, to one's face; in open defiance.

That which restrains or confines as a girdle. He cannot buckle his distempered cause Within the belt of rule. Shak.

Choleric; passionate; ill tempered. "A bilious old nabob." Macaulay. Bilious temperament. See Temperament.

Coagulated sour milk; loppered milk; curdled milk; -- sometimes called simply clabber. B. Jonson.

A sharp bit or snaffle. Pampered jades . . . which need nor break nor bit. Gascoigne.

the nonvocal consonants. The same sound may be pronounces either breathed, voiced, or whispered. H. Sweet. Breathed elements, being already voiceless, remain unchanged

A block or clay tempered with water, sand, etc., molded into a regular form, usually rectangular, and sun-dried, or burnt in a kiln, or in a heap or stack called a clamp. The Assyrians appear to have made much less use of bricks baked in the furnace than the Babylonians. Layard.

ies of figwort or Scrophularia (S. vernalis), and other species of the same genus, mostly perennials with inconspicuous coarse flowers.

A perennial white-flowered herb of the order Ranunculaceæ and genus Cimiciguga; bugwort. There are several species.

The cutting tool of an engraver on metal, used in line engraving. It is made of tempered steel, one end being ground off obliquely so as to produce a sharp point, and the other end inserted in a handle; a graver; also, the similarly shaped tool used by workers in marble.

A comic operetta; a music farce. Byron.

A genus of perennial herbs (Poterium); especially, P.Sanguisorba, the common, or garden, burnet. Burnet moth (Zoöl.), in England, a handsome moth (Zygæna filipendula), with crimson spots on the wings. -- Burnet saxifrage. (Bot.) See Saxifrage. -- Canadian burnet, a marsh plant (Poterium Canadensis). -- Great burnet,…

One who, or that which, buzzes; a whisperer; a talebearer. And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father's death. Shak.