Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Temperature
Tem′per-a-ture
,Noun.
[F.
température
, L. temperatura
due measure, proportion, temper, temperament.] 1.
Constitution; state; degree of any quality.
The best composition and
temperature
is, to have openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to feign, if there be no remedy. Bacon.
Memory depends upon the consistence and the
temperature
of the brain. I. Watts.
2.
Freedom from passion; moderation.
[Obs.]
In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth,
Most goodly
Most goodly
temperature
you may descry. Spenser.
4.
Mixture; compound.
[Obs.]
Made a
temperature
of brass and iron together. Holland.
Absolute temperature
. (Physics)
See under
– Absolute
. Animal temperature
(Physiol.)
, the nearly constant temperature maintained in the bodies of warm-blooded (homoiothermal) animals during life. The ultimate source of the heat is to be found in the potential energy of the food and the oxygen which is absorbed from the air during respiration. See
– Homoiothermal
. Temperature sense
(Physiol.)
, the faculty of perceiving cold and warmth, and so of perceiving differences of temperature in external objects.
H. N. Martin.
Webster 1828 Edition
Temperature
TEM'PERATURE
,Noun.
1.
In physics, the state of a body with regard to heat or cold, as indicated by the thermometer; or the degree of free caloric which a body possesses,when compared with other bodies. When a body applied to another, either excites the sensation of heat, or expands that body, we say it is of a higher temperature; that is, it possesses more free caloric. When it excites the sensation of cold, or contracts another body, it is said to be of a lower temperature. Thus we speak of the temperature of air, of water, of a climate, &c.; two countries of the same temperature.2.
Constitution; state; degree of any quality. Memory depends upon the consistence and temperature of the brain.
3.
Moderation; freedom from immoderate passions. In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth,
Most goodly temperature you may descry.
[Not in use.]