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Distemper

noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A viral disease of animals, such as dogs and cats, characterised by fever, coughing and catarrh. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    a method of painting in which the pigments are mixed with water and a binder; used for painting posters or murals or stage scenery wordnet
  3. 3
    A disorder of the humours of the body; a disease. archaic, countable, uncountable

    "O perplex'd diſcompoſition, O ridling diſtemper, O miſerable condition of Man."

  4. 4
    a painting created with paint that is made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder wordnet
  5. 5
    A glue-based paint. countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    paint made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder wordnet
  2. 7
    A painting produced with this kind of paint. countable
  3. 8
    an angry and disagreeable mood wordnet
  4. 9
    any of various infectious viral diseases of animals wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To temper or mix unduly; to make disproportionate; to change the due proportions of.
  2. 2
    paint with distemper wordnet
  3. 3
    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."

  4. 4
    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. 5
    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."

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  1. 6
    To paint using distemper.

    "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."

  2. 7
    To mix (colours) in the way of distemper.

    "to distemper colors with size"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Old French destemprer, from Latin distemperare.

Etymology 2

From Old French destemprer, from Latin distemperare.

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