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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Distemper \Dis*tem"per\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Distempered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Distempering}.] [OF. destemprer, destremper, to distemper, F. d['e]tremper 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.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Distemper \Dis*tem"per\, noun [See {Distemper}, verb (used with an object), 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}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
distemper
noun
1: any of various infectious viral diseases of animals
2: an angry and disagreeable mood [syn: {ill humor}, {ill humour}] [ant: {good humor}]
3: paint made by mixing the pigments with water and a binder
4: a painting created by distemper
5: a method of painting in which the pigments are mixed with water and a binder; used for painting posters or murals or stage scenery
verb: paint with distemper
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
166 Moby Thesaurus words for "distemper": Texas fever, abnormality, acute disease, affection, affliction, ailment, allergic disease, allergy, anarchism, anarchy, anthrax, aphthous fever, atrophy, bacterial disease, bighead, birth defect, black quarter, blackleg, blackwater, blight, blind staggers, bloody flux, broken wind, cardiovascular disease, cattle plague, charbon, chromogen, chronic disease, circulatory disease, coat, coat of paint, coating, color, color filter, color gelatin, colorant, coloring, complaint, complication, condition, congenital defect, dead-color, defect, deficiency disease, deformity, degenerative disease, derange, disability, disarrange, disarray, discompose, disease, disjoint, disorder, disturb, drier, dye, dyestuff, endemic, endemic disease, endocrine disease, epidemic disease, exterior paint, flat coat, flat wash, floor enamel, foot-and-mouth disease, functional disease, fungus disease, gapes, gastrointestinal disease, genetic disease, glanders, ground, handicap, heaves, hereditary disease, hog cholera, hoof-and-mouth disease, hydrophobia, iatrogenic disease, illness, indisposition, infectious disease, infirmity, interior paint, liver rot, loco, loco disease, locoism, mad staggers, malady, malaise, malignant catarrh, malignant catarrhal fever, malignant pustule, mange, medium, megrims, milzbrand, misrule, mix up, morbidity, morbus, muddle, muscular disease, neurological disease, nutritional disease, occupational disease, opaque color, organic disease, paint, pandemic disease, paratuberculosis, pathological condition, pathology, pigment, pip, plant disease, prime coat, primer, priming, protozoan disease, pseudotuberculosis, psychosomatic disease, quarter evil, rabies, respiratory disease, rinderpest, riot, rockiness, rot, rummage, scabies, secondary disease, seediness, sheep rot, sickishness, sickness, signs, splenic fever, staggers, stain, stringhalt, swine dysentery, symptomatology, symptomology, symptoms, syndrome, tempera, the pip, thinner, tinction, tincture, transparent color, turpentine, turps, undercoat, undercoating, urogenital disease, vehicle, virus disease, wash, wash coat, wasting disease, worm disease
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