DISTEMPER

distemper

(noun) a method of painting in which the pigments are mixed with water and a binder; used for painting posters or murals or stage scenery

distemper

(noun) a painting created with paint that is made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder

distemper

(noun) paint made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder

distemper

(noun) any of various infectious viral diseases of animals

distemper

(verb) paint with distemper

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

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.

A glue-based paint.

A painting produced with this kind of paint.

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.

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

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

To intoxicate.

To paint using distemper.

To mix (colours) in the way of distemper.

Anagrams

• imprested

Source: Wiktionary


Dis*tem"per, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Distempered; p. pr. & vb. n. Distempering.] Etym: [OF. destemprer, destremper, to distemper, F. détremper to soak, soften, slake (lime); pref. des- (L. dis-) + OF. temprer, tremper, F. tremper, L. temperare to mingle in due proportion. See Temper, and cf. Destemprer.]

1. To temper or mix unduly; to make disproportionate; to change the due proportions of. [Obs.] When . . . the humors in his body ben distempered. Chaucer.

2. To derange the functions of, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual; to disorder; to disease. Shak. The imagination, when completely distempered, is the most incurable of all disordered faculties. Buckminster.

3. To deprive of temper or moderation; to disturb; to ruffle; to make disaffected, ill-humored, or malignant. "Distempered spirits." Coleridge.

4. To intoxicate. [R.] The courtiers reeling, And the duke himself, I dare not say distempered, But kind, and in his tottering chair carousing. Massinger.

5. (Paint.)

Definition: To mix (colors) in the way of distemper; as, to distemper colors with size. [R.]

Dis*tem"per, n. Etym: [See Distemper, v. t., and cf. Destemprer.]

1. An undue or unnatural temper, or disproportionate mixture of parts. Bacon.

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. Sir W. Raleigh.

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. Suckling.

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. Shak. Some frenzy distemper had got into his head. Bunyan.

5. Political disorder; tumult. Waller.

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.

Syn.

– Disease; disorder; sickness; illness; malady; indisposition; ailment. See Disease.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

14 May 2025

TERNARY

(adjective) having three units or components or elements; “a ternary operation”; “a treble row of red beads”; “overcrowding made triple sessions necessary”; “triple time has three beats per measure”; “triplex windows”


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