Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To act evasively in order to gain time, avoid argument, or postpone a decision: "Colonial officials . . . ordered to enforce unpopular enactments, tended to temporize, to find excuses for evasion” ( J.H. Parry).
- v. To engage in discussions or negotiations, especially so as to achieve a compromise or gain time.
- v. To yield to current circumstances or necessities; act to suit the time.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To comply with the time or occasion, or with the desires of another; yield temporarily or ostensibly to the current of opinion or circumstances.
- To parley.
- To dilly-dally; delay; procrastinate.
- Also spelled temporise.
Wiktionary
- v. To deliberately act evasively or prolong a discussion in order to gain time or postpone a decision, sometimes in order to reach a compromise or simply to make a conversation more temperate.
- v. obsolete To comply with the time or occasion; to humor, or yield to, the current of opinion or circumstances; also, to trim, as between two parties.
- v. obsolete To delay; to procrastinate.
- v. obsolete To comply; to agree.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To comply with the time or occasion; to humor, or yield to, the current of opinion or circumstances; also, to trim, as between two parties.
- v. rare To delay; to procrastinate.
- v. obsolete To comply; to agree.
WordNet 3.0
- v. draw out a discussion or process in order to gain time
Etymologies
- Clipping of temperate + -ize. (Wiktionary)
- French temporiser, from Old French, from Medieval Latin temporizāre, to pass one's time, from Latin tempus, tempor-, time. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Cowardice is called meekness; to temporize is to be charitable and reverent; to speak truth, and shame the devil, is to offend weak brethren, who, somehow or other, never complain of their weak consciences till you hit them hard.”
“Gorbachev was more of a juggler, somebody who would kind of temporize, try to find compromises eternally, and that was very important.”
“Against his will and against his nature he began to temporize, meaning later to revenge his present humiliation upon his son.”
“It's about the brutal perfidy of the Conservative government, its gall, its utter lack of class, its willingness to cover up, to prevaricate, to temporize: hell, to lie its way out of a tight spot.”
“The other candidates in that election, had one of them won, would have continued to temporize, while Lincoln, in his own seemingly tentative style, refused to budge on the Republican Party's raison d'etre of no expansion of slavery into the territories.”
The Washington Post: John Marszalek: What if Lincoln lost the election?
“The slow and ugly approach is to mitigate, temporize and forestall to give us time to work ourselves out of difficulties.”
“Your partner opens one diamond, you respond one spade, he bids two clubs and you temporize with two hearts.”
“For a while, the Treasury can temporize with creative accounting, shifting money from one pile to another, and the like.”
“Before you temporize and go too far with the fish grab agenda, you need to first determine where we are actually losing the fish.”
“If I thought she would be [in] menopause in another six months, we could probably temporize with iron or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs even," says Dr. Goldstein, who is also professor of obstetrics and gynecology at NYU Langone Medical Center.”
The Huffington Post: Blood Test May Be Able To Predict Menopause
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘temporize’.
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
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inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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spazgirl's words
dilettante, elegy, derelict, evince, solicitous, shibboleth, exculpate, karma, animadversion, arrogate, effrontery, grouse and 114 more...
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There's a word for that?
temerity, tacit, froward, faineant, caterwaul, menagerie, ennui, sine qua non, lissom, multifarious, laconic, katzenjammer and 240 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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KaeZoo's Words
flingers, unhinged, driven, flanked, arboreal, venerable, endearing, iconoclastic, fletcher, competent, fireproof, cavernous and 215 more...
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Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Words of the Dying Earth
Tales of the Dying Earth is a 2002 anthology volume featuring four novels by Jack Vance: The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rhialto the Marvellous.
Throughou...deodar, deodand, pelgrane, leucomorph, blister-bush, russet, black burdock, gunmetal, spatterlight, carrack, concertina, terce and 280 more...
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frequent toefl
Words that I do not know or unsure for toefl
appurtenances, aptitude, arbitrary, arboretum, argot, arrears, avocation, avuncular, badger, bait, warden, bane and 428 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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Presidents At War
Words compiled while reading Presidents At War.
tumescent, dint, inexactitude, imprimatur, mikado, casus belli, aeolian, umbilicus, drumfire, suzerain, snit, palaver and 27 more...
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Manhattan Advanced 3
collude, cabal, compendium, confound, baffle, flummoxed, connote, contumacious, convoke, convene, cosset, coddle and 77 more...
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