Tepid
adjective
Only slightly warm, not hot but not cold.
He found his coffee tepid because he had left it out too long.
Often appears as...
- tepid water
- tepid response
adjective
Lacking enthusiasm, interest or energy.
The politician's speech was tepid, stirring little excitement among the crowd.
Often appears as...
- tepid response
- tepid applause
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Only slightly warm, not hot but not cold.
He found his coffee tepid because he had left it out too long.
Often appears as...
- tepid water
- tepid response
adjective
Lacking enthusiasm, interest or energy.
The politician's speech was tepid, stirring little excitement among the crowd.
Often appears as...
- tepid response
- tepid applause
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Mild Temperature
Use 'tepid' to describe something warmer than cold but not hot, like a bath.
After adding some cold water, the bath became tepid.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Implication
'Tepid' often suggests disappointment, as when something is expected to be hot.
I was looking forward to a steamy shower, but it was only tepid.
Pro Tip 3/3Subtle Warning
Describing food or drinks as 'tepid' can hint they are not fresh or properly prepared.
The soup arrived tepid, hinting it had been sitting out too long.
Pro Tip 1/3Mild Temperature
Use 'tepid' to describe something warmer than cold but not hot, like a bath.
After adding some cold water, the bath became tepid.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Implication
'Tepid' often suggests disappointment, as when something is expected to be hot.
I was looking forward to a steamy shower, but it was only tepid.
Pro Tip 3/3Subtle Warning
Describing food or drinks as 'tepid' can hint they are not fresh or properly prepared.
The soup arrived tepid, hinting it had been sitting out too long.
Pro Tip 1/3Mild Temperature
Use 'tepid' to describe something warmer than cold but not hot, like a bath.
After adding some cold water, the bath became tepid.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Implication
'Tepid' often suggests disappointment, as when something is expected to be hot.
I was looking forward to a steamy shower, but it was only tepid.
Pro Tip 3/3Subtle Warning
Describing food or drinks as 'tepid' can hint they are not fresh or properly prepared.
The soup arrived tepid, hinting it had been sitting out too long.
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Video examples
A glimpse of teenage...
Everyone moves from the cold room to the tepid room and to the very hot room. Oops! More than an hour later, the bathers leave massaged, oiled,
Video examples
A glimpse of teenage...
Everyone moves from the cold room to the tepid room and to the very hot room. Oops! More than an hour later, the bathers leave massaged, oiled,
Example 1 of 1
Quote examples
Sylvia Plath
American Poet
In London the day after Christmas (Boxing Day), it began to snow: my first snow in England. For five years, I had been tactfully asking, 'Do you ever have snow at all?' as I steeled myself to the six months of wet, tepid gray that make up an English winter. 'Ooo, I do remember snow,' was the usual reply, 'when I were a lad.
Quote examples
Walter Gropius
German Architect
The intellectual bourgeois of the old Empire - tepid and unimaginative, mentally slow, arrogant, and incorrectly trained - has proven his incapacity to be the bearer of German culture. His benumbed world is now toppled, its spirit is overthrown, and is in the midst of being recast into a new mold.
Quote examples
William Greider
American Author
The point is, the political reporters are the ones who no longer understand the ritual they are covering. They keep searching for political meanings in the tepid events when a convention is now essentially a human drama and only that.
Quote examples
Max Baucus
American Politician
I know the problem of obesity. I got to tell you, I think that's tepid. I just don't think the bully pulpit is going to be enough to sufficiently fight obesity. We're going to have to have incentives in here.
Quote examples
Mercedes Schlapp
American Public Servant
The tentacles of Islamic State are far-reaching, and the restrained and tepid international response that Mr. Obama has pursued will not eliminate this terrorist organization.
Quote examples
Ron Fournier
American Journalist
For a man who has compared himself to Theodore Roosevelt and the nation's challenges to those of the Gilded Age, Obama put forward a tepid agenda.
Quote examples
Gad Saad
Canadian Scientist
In no culture ever studied have women repeatedly preferred to mate with pear-shaped, low-status, tepid men possessing high-pitched, nasal voices.
Quote examples
Randall Terry
American Celebrity
So many Christian leaders have been so tepid or downright silent on the advance of the homosexual agenda.
Quote examples
Sylvia Plath
American Poet
In London the day after Christmas (Boxing Day), it began to snow: my first snow in England. For five years, I had been tactfully asking, 'Do you ever have snow at all?' as I steeled myself to the six months of wet, tepid gray that make up an English winter. 'Ooo, I do remember snow,' was the usual reply, 'when I were a lad.
Quote examples
Walter Gropius
German Architect
The intellectual bourgeois of the old Empire - tepid and unimaginative, mentally slow, arrogant, and incorrectly trained - has proven his incapacity to be the bearer of German culture. His benumbed world is now toppled, its spirit is overthrown, and is in the midst of being recast into a new mold.
Quote examples
William Greider
American Author
The point is, the political reporters are the ones who no longer understand the ritual they are covering. They keep searching for political meanings in the tepid events when a convention is now essentially a human drama and only that.
Quote examples
Max Baucus
American Politician
I know the problem of obesity. I got to tell you, I think that's tepid. I just don't think the bully pulpit is going to be enough to sufficiently fight obesity. We're going to have to have incentives in here.
Quote examples
Mercedes Schlapp
American Public Servant
The tentacles of Islamic State are far-reaching, and the restrained and tepid international response that Mr. Obama has pursued will not eliminate this terrorist organization.
Quote examples
Ron Fournier
American Journalist
For a man who has compared himself to Theodore Roosevelt and the nation's challenges to those of the Gilded Age, Obama put forward a tepid agenda.
Quote examples
Gad Saad
Canadian Scientist
In no culture ever studied have women repeatedly preferred to mate with pear-shaped, low-status, tepid men possessing high-pitched, nasal voices.
Quote examples
Randall Terry
American Celebrity
So many Christian leaders have been so tepid or downright silent on the advance of the homosexual agenda.
Example 1 of 8
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