MODERATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Moderate

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/mˈɑdərət/ /mˈɑdərˌeɪt/ Listen

adjective

Moderate adj. Kept within due bounds; observing reasonable limits; not excessive, extreme, violent, or rigorous; limited; restrained; as:

(a)

Limited in quantity; sparing; temperate; frugal; as, moderate in eating or drinking; a moderate table.

(b)

Limited in degree of activity, energy, or excitement; reasonable; calm; slow; as, moderate language; moderate endeavors.

(c)

Not extreme in opinion, in partisanship, and the like; as, a moderate Calvinist; a moderate Republican. "A number of moderate members managed... to obtain a majority in a thin house."

(d)

Not violent or rigorous; temperate; mild; gentle; as, a moderate winter. "Moderate showers."

(e)

Limited as to degree of progress; as, to travel at moderate speed.

(f)

Limited as to the degree in which a quality, principle, or faculty appears; as, an infusion of moderate strength; a man of moderate abilities.

(g)

Limited in scope or effects; as, a reformation of a moderate kind.

verb

Moderate v. t. (past & past part. moderated; pres. part. moderating)

To restrain from excess of any kind; to reduce from a state of violence, intensity, or excess; to keep within bounds; to make temperate; to lessen; to allay; to repress; to temper; to qualify; as, to moderate rage, action, desires, etc.; to moderate heat or wind. "By its astringent quality, it moderates the relaxing quality of warm water." "To moderate stiff minds disposed to strive."

To preside over, direct, or regulate, as a public meeting or a discussion; as, to moderate a synod; to moderate a debate.

Moderate v. i.

To become less violent, severe, rigorous, or intense; as, the wind has moderated.

To preside as a moderator. "Dr. Barlow (was) engaged... to moderate for him in the divinity disputation."

noun

Moderate n. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a party in the Church of Scotland in the 18th century, and part of the 19th, professing moderation in matters of church government, in discipline, and in doctrine.

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Etymology of 'Moderate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Moderate" Quotes from Famous Books

... evidently in great trouble, so let the bard leave off, that we may all enjoy ourselves, hosts and guest alike. This will be much more as it should be, for all these festivities, with the escort and the presents that we are making with so much good will are wholly in his honour, and any one with even a moderate amount of right feeling knows that he ought to treat a guest and a suppliant as though he ...

— The Odyssey • Homer

... took a little Quixotism of imagination to consider as castles all these four-story brick houses with placards affixed of "Rooms to be let," and to secure the most eligible corner in one of these at moderate rent. ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 • Various

... Blankenese itself consists of cottages, grouped in a picturesque manner round the Sulberg, a hill from which the traveller enjoys a very extended view over the great plain, in which it is the only elevated point. The course of the Elbe, as it winds at moderate speed towards the sea, is here to be traced almost ...

— Visit to Iceland - and the Scandinavian North • Ida Pfeiffer

... Cambridge undergraduate. He was neither clever, nor industrious, nor very ambitious; he thought that a moderate place was quite good enough for him to aim at, and he found that his unknown and obscure tutor by correspondence was cheap and obliging, and willing to take trouble, and quite as efficacious for ...

— In Luck at Last • Walter Besant

... than he under theirs. The fact is that his temper was so amiable and conciliatory, his conduct so rational, never urging impossibilities, or even things unreasonably inconvenient to them, in short so moderate and attentive to their difficulties, as well as our own, that what his enemies called subserviency I saw was only that reasonable disposition which, sensible that advantages are not all to be on one side, yielding what is just and liberal, is the more certain of obtaining liberality ...

— Benjamin Franklin • John Torrey Morse, Jr.

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