Dis*tem"per , n. [See Distemper,
v. t., and cf. Destemprer.]
1. An undue or unnatural temper, or disproportionate mixture of parts. Bacon.
&fist; 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.
Dis*tem"per (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Distempered (?);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Distempering.]
[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.) To mix (colors) in the way of distemper; as, to distemper colors with size. [R.]
Hear it pronounced