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Definition of Distemper
1. Verb. Paint with distemper.
2. Noun. Any of various infectious viral diseases of animals.
3. Noun. An angry and disagreeable mood.
Generic synonyms: Humor, Humour, Mood, Temper
Specialized synonyms: Moodiness, Choler, Crossness, Fretfulness, Fussiness, Irritability, Peevishness, Petulance
Antonyms: Good Humor
4. Noun. Paint made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder.
5. Noun. A painting created with paint that is made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder.
6. 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.
Definition of Distemper
1. v. t. To temper or mix unduly; to make disproportionate; to change the due proportions of.
2. n. An undue or unnatural temper, or disproportionate mixture of parts.
Definition of Distemper
1. Noun. (context: pathology) A viral disease of animals, such as dogs and cats, characterised by fever, coughing and catarrh. ¹
2. Noun. (archaic) A disorder of the humours of the body; a disease. ¹
3. Noun. A water-based paint. ¹
4. Noun. A painting produced with this kind of paint. ¹
5. Verb. to disturb and disorder, hence to make sick ¹
6. Verb. to paint using distemper ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Distemper
1. [v -ED, -ING, -S]
Medical Definition of Distemper
1. 1. An undue or unnatural temper, or disproportionate mixture of parts. 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. "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. "Little faults proceeding on distemper." (Shak) "Some frenzy distemper had got into his head." (Bunyan) 5. Political disorder; tumult. 6. A preparation of opaque or body colours, 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. A painting done with this preparation. Synonym: Disease, disorder, sickness, illness, malady, indisposition, ailment. See Disease. See: Distemper, and cf. Destemprer. 1. To temper or mix unduly; to make disproportionate; to change the due proportions of. "When . . . The humors in his body ben distempered." (Chaucer) 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." (Buckminster) 3. To deprive of temper or moderation; to disturb; to ruffle; to make disaffected, ill-humored, or malignant. "Distempered spirits." 4. To intoxicate. "The courtiers reeling, And the duke himself, I dare not say distempered, But kind, and in his tottering chair carousing." (Massinger) 5. To mix (colours) in the way of distemper; as, to distemper colours with size. Origin: OF. Destemprer, destremper, to distemper, F. Detremper 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. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Distemper
Literary usage of Distemper
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Annual Registeredited by Edmund Burke edited by Edmund Burke (1826)
"... extraordinary calf, ii 6G .... thanksgiving for the cessation of the distemper
among ... xii 1591 tun I. с л Cattle : state of the distemper in Holland, ..."
2. Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe (1895)
"distemper upon them ; arid who., by having an uninterrupted liberty to go about,
but being obliged still to conceal their circumstances, or, perhaps, ..."
3. International Library of Technology: A Series of Textbooks for Persons by International Textbook Company (1905)
"Distinction Between Transparent Water Color and Distemper Color. ... Opaque water
color, usually called tempera or distemper, consists of an opaque pigment ..."
4. Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society by Royal Microscopical Society, London (1882)
"Connection of the Bacilli of Hay and of Distemper, f — In pursuance of his
experiments on the mutual conversion into one another of the bacilli of distemper ..."
5. A Text-book of the Diseases of the Small Domestic Animals by Oscar Victor Brumley (1921)
"Animals with distemper should be isolated and' kept from healthy young dogs.
Thorough disinfection of all utensils, bedding, rooms, etc., should be attended ..."
6. The Grammar of Painting and Engraving by Charles Blanc (1874)
"Painting in Distemper. Wall painting accommodates itself equally to distemper;
... Richer than fresco, distemper permits the use of mineral colors. ..."
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