distemper
English
Etymology
From Old French destemprer, from Latin distemperare.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /dɪsˈtɛmpə(ɹ)/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛmpə(ɹ)
Noun
distemper (countable and uncountable, plural distempers)
- (veterinary medicine, pathology) A viral disease of animals, such as dogs and cats, characterised by fever, coughing and catarrh.
- (archaic) A disorder of the humours of the body; a disease.
- 1624, John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation I., in The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne, ed. Charles M. Coffin, New York: Modern Library (1952), pp. 415-416:
- O perplex'd discomposition, O ridling distemper, O miserable condition of Man!
- 1719 April 25, [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, OCLC 838630407, page 105:
- […] my spirits began to sink under the Burden of a strong Distemper, and Nature was exhausted with the Violence of the Fever […]
- 1624, John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation I., in The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne, ed. Charles M. Coffin, New York: Modern Library (1952), pp. 415-416:
- A glue-based paint.
- (countable) A painting produced with this kind of paint.
Derived terms
- canine distemper
- canine distemper virus
- sleepy distemper
- throat distemper
Translations
disease
|
paint
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Verb
distemper (third-person singular simple present distempers, present participle distempering, simple past and past participle distempered)
- To temper or mix unduly; to make disproportionate; to change the due proportions of.
- 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Parsons Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, OCLC 932884868, folio cxiii, verso, Sequitur de Gula, column 2:
- This ſynne hath manie ſpeces: […] The fourth is, whan through the greate abundaunce of hys meete, the humours in hys body ben diſtempred.
- This sin [gluttony] has many species: […] The fourth is, when through the great abundance of his meat, the humours in his body be distempered.
-
- To derange the functions of, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual; to disorder; to disease.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:
- 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.
- 1814, Joseph Stevens Buckminster, Sermons, Boston: John Eliot, Sermon XVI, p. 267,
- The imagination, when completely distempered, is the most incurable of all disordered faculties.
- 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter 3.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, OCLC 639975898:
- 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.
-
- 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.
- 1799-1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (translator), The Piccolomini by Friedrich Schiller, Boston: Francis A. Niccolls & Co., 1902, p. 37,
- To intoxicate.
- 1623, Philip Massinger, The Duke of Milan, Act I, Scene 1,
- 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.
- 1623, Philip Massinger, The Duke of Milan, Act I, Scene 1,
- To paint using distemper.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
- He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
- 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 19, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], OCLC 2603818:
- We cleaned out the cellars, fixed the shelves, distempered the walls, polished the woodwork, whitewashed the ceiling, stained the floor;
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- To mix (colours) in the way of distemper.
- to distemper colors with size
Conjugation
Conjugation of distemper
infinitive | (to) distemper | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | distemper | distempered | |
2nd-person singular | distemper, distemperest† | distempered, distemperedst† | |
3rd-person singular | distempers, distempereth† | distempered | |
plural | distemper | ||
subjunctive | distemper | distempered | |
imperative | distemper | — | |
participles | distempering | distempered |
†Archaic or obsolete.
Anagrams
- imprested