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Distemper   /dɪstˈɛmpər/   Listen
noun
Distemper  n.  
1.
An undue or unnatural temper, or disproportionate mixture of parts. Note: This meaning and most of the following are to be referred to the Galenical doctrine of the four "humors" in man. See Humor. According to the old physicians, these humors, when unduly tempered, produce a disordered state of body and mind.
2.
Severity of climate; extreme weather, whether hot or cold. (Obs.) "Those countries... under the tropic, were of a distemper uninhabitable."
3.
A morbid state of the animal system; indisposition; malady; disorder; at present chiefly applied to diseases of brutes; as, a distemper in dogs; the horse distemper; the horn distemper in cattle. "They heighten distempers to diseases."
4.
Morbid temper of the mind; undue predominance of a passion or appetite; mental derangement; bad temper; ill humor. (Obs.) "Little faults proceeding on distemper." "Some frenzy distemper had got into his head."
5.
Political disorder; tumult.
6.
(Paint.)
(a)
A preparation of opaque or body colors, in which the pigments are tempered or diluted with weak glue or size (cf. Tempera) instead of oil, usually for scene painting, or for walls and ceilings of rooms.
(b)
A painting done with this preparation.
Synonyms: Disease; disorder; sickness; illness; malady; indisposition; ailment. See Disease.


verb
Distemper  v. t.  (past & past part. distempered; pres. part. distempering)  
1.
To temper or mix unduly; to make disproportionate; to change the due proportions of. (Obs.) "When... the humors in his body ben distempered."
2.
To derange the functions of, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual; to disorder; to disease. "The imagination, when completely distempered, is the most incurable of all disordered faculties."
3.
To deprive of temper or moderation; to disturb; to ruffle; to make disaffected, ill-humored, or malignant. "Distempered spirits."
4.
To intoxicate. (R.) "The courtiers reeling, And the duke himself, I dare not say distempered, But kind, and in his tottering chair carousing."
5.
(Paint.) To mix (colors) in the way of distemper; as, to distemper colors with size. (R.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Distemper" Quotes from Famous Books



... the Lord Mayor, Sir John Shorter: the occasion of his distemper was his fall under Newgate, which bruised him a little, and put him into a fever." Letter of ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole
... neighbour, Mr. Fraser, tells me that by my looks and speaking he cannot think me so ill as imagined. You will think the same by my writing the above. My distemper is owing to Gravelly Ulcers and it is a great chance at my time of life to recover, so [we] should be prepared ...
— A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs - The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861 • George M. Wrong
... merry nonsense about gifts and gayety and lovers. She was very well, with the very underscored, and two engagements for every evening. She had not heard from Louie, "but I should have if her little finger had ached; she would have been afraid of some distemper. And I hope you are all having a ...
— The Girls at Mount Morris • Amanda Minnie Douglas
... Jongleur is a sort of Physician, or rather a Quack, who being once cur'd of some dangerous Distemper, has the Presumption and Folly to fancy that he is immortal, and possessed of the Power of curing all Diseases, by speaking to the Good and Evil Spirits. Now though every Body rallies upon these Fellows when they are absent, and looks upon 'em as ...
— Seventh Annual Report • Various
... saved. But concerning the matter thou hast written about, this is to acquaint thee that all things for which I was sent hither must be fulfilled and that I shall be taken up and returned to Him that sent me. But after my ascension I will send one of my disciples that shall cure thee of thy distemper and give life to all ...
— Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery • Robert Means Lawrence


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