distemper

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A viral disease of animals, such as dogs and cats, characterised by fever, coughing and…

   A viral disease of animals, such as dogs and cats, characterised by fever, coughing and catarrh.

2. 2

   A disorder of the humours of the body

   A disorder of the humours of the body; a disease.

   • O perplex'd diſcompoſition, O ridling diſtemper, O miſerable condition of Man.
   • [M]y spirits began to sink under the Burden of a strong Distemper, and Nature was exhausted with the Violence of the Fever […]
3. 3

   A glue-based paint.

4. ›+ 7 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A painting produced with this kind of paint.

   2. 5

      To temper or mix unduly

      To temper or mix unduly; to make disproportionate; to change the due proportions of.

   3. 6

      To derange the functions of, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual

      To derange the functions of, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual; to disorder; to disease.

      • Guildenstern. The King, sir— Hamlet. Ay, sir, what of him? Guildenstern. Is in his retirement, marvellous distemper’d. Hamlet. With drink, sir? Guildenstern. No, my lord; rather with choler.
      • The imagination, when completely distempered, is the most incurable of all disordered faculties.
      • To some extent the Nore Mutiny may be regarded as analogous to the distempering irruption of contagious fever in a frame constitutionally sound, and which anon throws it off.
   4. 7

      To deprive of temper or moderation

      To deprive of temper or moderation; to disturb; to ruffle; to make disaffected, ill-humoured, or malignant.

      • 1799-1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (translator), The Piccolomini by Friedrich Schiller, Boston: Francis A. Niccolls & Co., 1902, p. 37, I have been long accustomed to defend you, To heal and pacify distempered spirits.
   5. 8

      To intoxicate.

      • For the Courtiers reeling, And the Duke himselfe, (I dare not say distemperd, But kind, and in his tottering chaire carousing) They doe the countrie service.
   6. 9

      To paint using distemper.

      • We cleaned out the cellars, fixed the shelves, distempered the walls, polished the woodwork, whitewashed the ceiling, stained the floor;
   7. 10

      To mix (colours) in the way of distemper.

      • to distemper colors with size

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