Temp

//tɛmp// adj, adv, noun, verb, slang

adj, adv, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Clipping of temperature. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping

    "“All brake temps except the one are in the yellow and climbing. You'll get the warning light soon,” was the flight engineer's response. The one brake temp that was okay was the brake on the blown tire."

  2. 2
    Synonym of temporary (“short-term employee”). informal
  3. 3
    Abbreviation of test and evaluation master plan abbreviation, alt-of
  4. 4
    a worker (especially in an office) hired on a temporary basis wordnet
  5. 5
    Synonym of temporary (“short-term variable”). informal

    "That is, r-values include numeric constants, nonaddressable local variables (temps) […]"

Verb
  1. 1
    To measure or check the temperature of something, especially food or equipment in a commercial kitchen.

    "The produce walk in is temping at between 42-46° and I let management know but nobody seemed too pressed about it. Days later it’s still the same problem"

  2. 2
    To work as a temporary employee. informal, transitive

    "--I temp for money, but it's not my main thing. I write plays."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Abbreviation of temporary. abbreviation, alt-of, not-comparable

    "Consequently, the unit executes and places the result in a temp register."

Adverb
  1. 1
    Alternative form of temp. (“in the time of”). alt-of, alternative, not-comparable

Antonyms

All antonyms

Example

More examples

""Manpower" is the world's largest temp agency."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Clipping of temperature.

Etymology 2

See temp.

Etymology 3

Clipping of temporary.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.