temporize

From Middle French temporiser (“to wait one's time, temporize”) + English -ize (suffix forming verbs). Temporiser is derived from Medieval Latin temporizāre, from Latin temporāre (“to delay, put off”) + -izāre (suffix forming the present active infinitive of verbs). Temporāre is derived from tempor-, the inflected stem of tempus (“age, time, period; season of the year; due, opportune, or proper time”)^[1] (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *temp-, *ten- (“to extend, stretch (in the sense of a stretch of time)”), or *temh₁- (“to cut (in the sense of a section of time)”)) + -āre.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛmpəɹaɪz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛmpəˌɹaɪz/
• Hyphenation: temp‧or‧ize

temporize (third-person singular simple present temporizes, present participle temporizing, simple past and past participle temporized) (American spelling, Oxford British English)

1. (intransitive) To deliberately act evasively or prolong a discussion in order to gain time or postpone a decision, sometimes so that a compromise can be reached or simply to make a conversation more temperate; to stall for time.
2. (intransitive, by extension) To discuss, to negotiate; to reach a compromise.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 19, column 2:

     The Dolphin is too wilfull oppoſite, / And will not temporize with my intreaties: / He flatly ſaies, heell not lay downe his Armes.

   • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Peveril of the Peak. , volume IV, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 5:

     I ought to have temporized with this singular being, learned the motives of its interference, and availed myself of its succor, [...]

3. (transitive, dentistry) To apply a temporary piece of dental work that will later be removed.
   • 2005, Dental Economics, volume 95, Tulsa, Okla.: PennWell Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 66:

     This is especially true when we're faced with temporizing a patient who will ultimately receive veneer restorations.

4. (intransitive, archaic) To comply with the occasion or time; to humour, or yield to, current circumstances or opinion; also, to trim (“fluctuate between parties, so as to appear to favour each”).
   • 1595, Samuel Daniel, “The Fovvrth Booke”, in The First Fowre Bookes of the Ciuile Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke, London: P Short for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, stanza 102, folio , recto:

     Yet ſeeking at the firſt to temporize, / She tries if that ſome ſhort impriſonment / would calme their heat; when that would not ſuffize, / Then to exile him ſhee muſt needes conſent: [...]

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Against Pouerty and Want, with Such Other Adversity”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 3, member 3, page 268:

     Happy he, in that he is freed from the tumults of the world, hee ſeekes no honours, gapes after no preferment, flatters not, envies not, temporizeth not, but liues priuately, and well contented with his eſtate, [...]

   • 1627, E. F. [i.e., Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland], The History of the Life, Reign, and Death of Edward II, King of England, and Lord of Ireland: , London: J. C. for Charles Harper Samuel Crouch and Thomas Fox , published 1680, →OCLC, lines 301–302; republished in Randall Martin, editor, Women Writers in Renaissance England, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2014, →ISBN, part 2 (Prose), page 176:

     Though that her heart were fired, and swollen with anger, she temporiseth so, 'twas undiscovered: [...]

   • 1751 December (indicated as 1752), Henry Fielding, “A Curious Conversation between the Doctor, the Young Clergyman, and the Young Clergyman’s Father”, in Amelia, volume III, London: [William Strahan] for A Millar , →OCLC, book IX, page 322:

     How do you expect to riſe in the Church, if you can't temporize, and give into the Opinion of your Superiors?

   • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter VIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 298:

     Penn, therefore, exhorted the fellows not to rely on the goodness of their cause, but to submit, or at least to temporise.

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To delay, especially until a more favourable time; to procrastinate.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. , quarto edition, London: V S for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     Pedro. Nay, if Cupid haue not ſpent all his quiuer in Venice, thou wilt quake for this ſhortly. / Bened[ick]. I looke for an earthquake too then. / Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the howres, [...]

   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, , London: W Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC, pages 33–34:

     The Earle of Lincolne [John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln] deceiued of his hopes of the Countries concourſe vnto him (in which caſe he would haue temporized) and ſeeing the buſineſſe paſt Retraict, reſolued to make on where the King [Henry VII of England] was, and to giue him Battaile; [...]

6. (transitive, medicine) To take temporary measures or actions to manage a situation without providing a definitive or permanent solution.

• temporise (non-Oxford British spelling)

• temporization
• temporized (adjective)
• temporizer