n. [ F. température, L. temperatura due measure, proportion, temper, temperament. ] 1. Constitution; state; degree of any quality. [ 1913 Webster ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ] Memory depends upon the consistence and the temperature of the brain. I. Watts. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Freedom from passion; moderation. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ] In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth,
Most goodly temperature you may descry. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. (Physics) Condition with respect to heat or cold, especially as indicated by the sensation produced, or by the thermometer or pyrometer; degree of heat or cold; as, the temperature of the air; high temperature; low temperature; temperature of freezing or of boiling. The temperature of a liquid or a solid body as measured by a thermometer is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the consituent atoms or molecules of the body. For other states of matter such as plasma, electromagnetic radiation, or subatomic particles, an analogous measure of the average kinetic energy may be expressed as a temperature, although it could never be measured by a traditional thermometer, let alone by sensing with the skin. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ] 4. Mixture; compound. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ] Made a temperature of brass and iron together. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ] 5. (Physiol. & Med.) The degree of heat of the body of a living being, esp. of the human body; also (Colloq.), loosely, the excess of this over the normal (of the human body 98°-99.5° F., in the mouth of an adult about 98.4°). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]
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. [ 1913 Webster ]
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