a. (sb.) [ad. L. temporāri-us, f. tempus, tempor- time: see -ARY.]
1. Lasting for a limited time; existing or valid for a time (only); not permanent; transient; made to supply a passing need.
1547–64. Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), 60. The authority of princes & gouernors … is truely to be called temporarie, that is, but for a time.
a. 1628. Preston, New Covt. (1634), 45. The creature is temporary, whereas the soul is immortall.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xix. 99. For their perpetuall, and not temporary security.
1777. Cook, Voy. Pacific, II. vii. (1784), I. 292. A large space had been cleared, before the temporary hut of this Chief.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. ix. 293. The adaptation of temporary expedients to temporary exigencies.
1858. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk. (1873), III. V. i. 434. Inconveniences which they felt to be only temporary.
1919. Ethel Hueston, Betty Gale on the Mesa, iii. 37. Just let it go until the tank’s empty. Then your uncle can solder it up permanently. But for a temporary job, yours can’t be beat.
b. Temporary star (Astron.), a star which appears suddenly, shines for a time, and then almost or entirely disappears; temporary tooth, a deciduous tooth, milk-tooth.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 559. The first teeth, or those of childhood, the author calls temporary, the set which succeeds them he terms permanent.
1833. Herschel, Astron., xii. 383. The phenomena we allude to are those of temporary stars.
1842. E. Wilson, Anat. Vade M. (ed. 2), 51. The Temporary teeth are 20 in number, 8 incisors, 4 canine, and 8 molars.
† c. Belonging or relating to the particular time; of the period; hence, of passing interest, ephemeral. ? Obs. (or merged in 1).
1777. Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 164. I send you a trifling temporary production, made for the occasion of the day, and to perish with it.
1778. Musgrave, 25 April, in Boswell, Johnson. A temporary poem always entertains us.
1805. W. Cooke, S. Foote, I. 152. Though it [‘Devil upon Two Sticks’] admits of some temporary strokes, such as the ridicule on the college of physicians,… &c., [it] exhibits them worked up in so brilliant and general a manner, as to be always new.
† 2. Belonging to the present life or this world: = TEMPORAL a.1 2. Obs.
(In quot. 1603, of a person: ‘not a meddler with temporal or secular affairs.’)
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., V. i. 145. Duke. Know you that Frier Lodowick that she speakes of? Peter. I know him for a man diuine and holy, Not scuruy, nor a temporary medler, As he’s reported by this Gentleman.
1668. Howe, Bless. Righteous (1825), 63. In our temporary state, while we are under the measure of time.
1674. Owen, Holy Spirit (1693), 207. Spiritual and Eternal things are more excellent than things Carnal and Temporary.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 153, ¶ 13. The wise use of temporary riches.
† 3. Metaph. Occurring or existing in time (not from eternity). Obs. (Cf. TEMPORAL a.1 6.)
a. 1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., I. ii. 69. Collectively they make up a good moral evidence touching a temporary inception of the humane Nature.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. i. § 31. 39. They who conceived the World to have had a Temporary Beginning or Creation, held the Coevity of all Souls with it.
1701. Norris, Ideal World, 327. These truths are temporary, because those relations could not begin to exist before those created beings were produced.
† 4. = TEMPORAL a.1 4. Obs. rare.
a. 1656. Ussher, Ann., To Rdr. ¶ 10. That from the evening ushering in the first day of the World, to that midnight which began the first day of the Christian æra, there was 4003 years, seventy dayes, and six temporarie howers.
B. sb.
† 1. pl. Things belonging to this life, temporal goods. Cf. TEMPORALITY 1 b. Obs.
1596. H. Clapham, Briefe Bible, II. 218. Wee haue taken Bread and other temporaries without begging them at thy hands.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 172. A large Castle, which now by age or war (the canker-worms of all temporaries) is moth-eaten.
† 2. A person whose religious life or devotion endures only for a time. (In allusion to Matt. xiii. 21, etc.) Obs. (In quot. 1903 used (? by misunderstanding) for: A time-server, temporizer.).
1619. W. Sclater, Exp. 1 Thess. (1630), 59. Our Temporaries, or rather Temporizers … are carried full saile to the profession of Faith; whom yet the least note of reproach … makes ready to deny and abiure the Truth.
1647. Trapp, Comm., 2 Cor. xiii. 8. A temporary may so fall away as to persecute the truth that he once professed.
[1903. A. Smellie, Men of Covt., xxiii. (1904), 253. A Temporary,—one who tries year in and year out to ‘carry his dish level,’ and adjusts his sails to catch the changing winds.]
† 3. A contemporary. Obs.
1649. Alcoran, 6. We left this punishment, as an advertisement to their temporaries and posteritie.
4. A person employed or holding a post temporarily; a ‘casual.’
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iii. Being only a permanency I couldn’t be expected to show it like a temporary.
1892. Pall Mall G., 7 Oct., 7/1. The ‘permanent temporaries’ are liable to dismissal at any time, but are practically fixed, some having been in the service from eight to ten years.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 1 July, 7/2. Servants who are merely casuals (i.e., temporaries) in purely private families.
