Dictionary

temperless en · ADJ

Etymology

From temper + -less.

Meanings

1. Untempered.
   • All of the 60 analysable body sherds recovered from the refuse are plain and possess the temperless to slightly tempered paste with clay granule inclusions that characterized the majority of the previously described rim sherds. 1971, Bulletin: Anthropological series - Issues 87-88, page 6:
   • Random amorphous bits of fired clay, temperless and not identifiable as wall daub, were frequently encountered in the excavations. 2010, Vernon James Knight, H. Edwin Jackson, Susan L. Scott, Mound Excavations at Moundville, page 160:
   • This shift in settlement and impoverishment in material goods took place as the indigenous polychrome style (affiliated with Lowland Maya polychromestyles such as that of Altun Ha) was replaced by temperless, incised ceramics inspired by contemporary western Maya traditions. 2015, Rosemary A. Joyce, Cerro Palenque: Power and Identity on the Maya Periphery:
   • It may also be explained aesthetically: Pearl River potters seemed to prefer a more uniform, polished, "temperless" look for serving ware vessels. 2006, Mark A. Rees, Patrick Livingood, Plaquemine Archaeology, page 124:
2. Showing no passion; impassive.
   • I could now even visualize the son, that impassive, humorless, temperless man, as a kind of lethal vine twisting itself ineluctably around the stout trunk of a venerable oak, or even, more horribly, as a giant anaconda around the body of a strangled steer. 1997, Louis Auchincloss, The Atonement and Other Stories:
   • ' I always felt you were no gentleman, and this proves it,' remarks the disconsolate yet temperless Ladlaw, as he pockets his cash. 1900, Harvey Buxon, Our Remarkable Fledger, page 208:
   • However formal and temperless may seem the greater part of the written diplomatic history of a nation, the real facts are often quite different. 1887, John Robert Irelan, The Republic:
   • They wander aimlessly about in all directions, a sort of joint sacrifice, perpetually tortured and daily offered up on the altar of the diabolical courier, crushed beneath the ubiquitous Juggernaut hotel-keeper, bound continually in new and arid places to be torn by the vulture guide, and ultimately sent home more or less penniless, quite temperless, and perhaps permanently disgusted with one another and with married life. 2018, F. Marion Crawford, Pietro Ghisleri, page 59:

Forms