Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Moderately warm; lukewarm.
- adj. Lacking in emotional warmth or enthusiasm; halfhearted: "the tepid conservatism of the fifties” ( Irving Howe).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Moderately warm; lukewarm.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Moderately warm; lukewarm.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. moderately warm
- adj. feeling or showing little interest or enthusiasm
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Latin tepidus, from tepēre, to be lukewarm.
Examples
“Former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, also took a stab at what he called a tepid U.S. response to the unrest against the tiny island's Sunni monarchy.”
“I haven't read this, but I did read Esslemont's Night of Knives and I thought it was a bit meh, so I am not surprised that "tepid" is the one word applied to this volume.”
Ian Cameron Esslemont - Return of the Crimson Guard (Book Review)
“Given the long-term tepid outlook for the world economy, is the near-future the right time to force those costs down consumers' throats?”
The Huffington Post: Steve Parker: EPA Rates Volt and Leaf: What's Your Choice?
“And from its crimson source in tepid channels flow.”
“Beneath this window is a broad divan, and here, laved in tepid sea winds and soothed by rippling whispers against the ship's side, I sleep – the langorous, voluptuous sleep of the tropics; ... sink softly into that dim warm flood where one lies drenched, submerged in unconsciousness; a flood that ebbs slowly, slowly – bearing with it all fatigue and satiety – and leaves me on the shores of life again in a pale lilac dusk glimmering with great stars ....”
“These good global numbers hide, however, a more complex reality, namely a tepid recovery in many advanced economies, and a much stronger one in most emerging and developing economies.”
The Huffington Post: World Faces Serious New Economic Challenges
“BLITZER: President Obama is now using the toughest language yet to condemn Iran's crackdown on political protesters after a week of what his critics called a tepid response.”
“That said, even as a conservative, I believe my bias towards John Tory could have been most charitably described as tepid I did not support him for leader, and as recently as two weeks ago I was not very impressed.”
“So, White House Spokesman Gordon Johndroe is saying the President feels that his so-called tepid endorsement of Maliki was misreported, and that he wants to make clear today that he's fully behind Maliki.”
“Tom Gullikson, the captain from 1994-99, recalls the tepid response he and the team received after a dramatic win against Russia in 1995 when Sampras won all three of the USA's points in one of the best efforts in Cup history.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tepid’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 1128 more...
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The weird, the wonderful and the plain hilarious
Loved for their ingenuity, an exact description, or simply for the pure joy of it.
acidulous, aprosdoketon, higgledy-piggledy, lexicographical, ninja, audacious, somnabulist, shivaree, amorphous, quidnunc, glib, melancholy and 353 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Express Yourself
Words Describing Emotions
abhor, diffident, bullience, effusice, enervate, frenetic, impetuous, implacable, listless, mercurial, rancorous, reticent and 7 more...

bilby Can't rule out the metaphorical. May 13, 2009
cxkang strictly physical context? May 13, 2009