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.
Distemperance
(Dis*tem"per*ance) n. Distemperature. [Obs.]
Distemperate
(Dis*tem"per*ate) a. [LL. distemperatus, p. p.]
1. Immoderate. [Obs.] Sir W. Raleigh.
2. Diseased; disordered. [Obs.] Wodroephe.
Distemperately
(Dis*tem"per*ate*ly), adv. Unduly. [Obs.]
Distemperature
(Dis*tem"per*a*ture) n.
1. Bad temperature; intemperateness; excess of heat or cold, or of other qualities; as, the distemperature
of the air. [Obs.]
2. Disorder; confusion. Shak.
3. Disorder of body; slight illness; distemper.
A huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to life.
Shak. 4. Perturbation of mind; mental uneasiness.
Sprinkled a little patience on the heat of his distemperature.
Sir W. Scott. Distemperment
(Dis*tem"per*ment) n. Distempered state; distemperature. [Obs.] Feltham.
