distemper

/dɪsˈtɛmpə(ɹ)/

distemper noun: a viral disease of animals, such as dogs and cats, characterised by fever, coughing and catarrh.

Noun

distemper (countable and uncountable, plural distempers)

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.
- […] and is the onlie laſt remedie for all debilities which haue long vexed the body through a hote diſtemper of the Lever, ſuch as a hote Gutte; it allayeth all Inflamations inward & outward.1618, Patri[c]k Anderson, The Colde Spring of Kinghorne Craig […], Edinburgh: Thomas Finlason, unnumbered page
- O perplex'd diſcompoſition, O ridling diſtemper, O miſerable condition of Man.1624, John Donne, “1. Meditation”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 8
A glue-based paint.
(countable) 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.
- Guildenstern. The King, sir—
  Hamlet. Ay, sir, what of him?
  Guildenstern. Is in his retirement, marvellous distemper’d.
  Hamlet. With drink, sir?
  Guildenstern. No, my lord; rather with choler.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- The imagination, when completely distempered, is the most incurable of all disordered faculties.1814, Joseph Stevens Buckminster, Sermons, Boston: John Eliot, Sermon XVI, p. 267
To deprive of temper or moderation; to disturb; to ruffle; to make disaffected, ill-humoured, or malignant.
- I have been long accustomed to defend you,
  To heal and pacify distempered spirits.1799-1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (translator), The Piccolomini by Friedrich Schiller, Boston: Francis A. Niccolls & Co., 1902, p. 37
To intoxicate.
- For the Courtiers reeling,
  And the Duke himselfe, (I dare not say distemperd,
  But kind, and in his tottering chaire carousing)
  They doe the countrie service.1623, Philip Massinger, The Duke of Milan, act I, scene 1
To paint using distemper.
- He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- We cleaned out the cellars, fixed the shelves, distempered the walls, polished the woodwork, whitewashed the ceiling, stained the floor;1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XIX, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC
To mix (colours) in the way of distemper.
- to distemper colors with size

distemper meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

distemper in Tamil

சுவர் வண்ணம், திசுரெம்பர், பதனி, திசுத்தெம்பர், நாய்களில் நச்சுயிரிக் காய்ச்சல், ஒட்டு வண்ணம்

distemper in Malayalam

ദുശ്ശീലം, രോഗം, ഒരുതരം ചായം

distemper in Kannada

ಡಿಸ್ಪೆಂಪರ್‌, ಬಣ್ಣಹಾಕು, ಮನಸ್ವಾಸ್ಥ್ಯ ಕೆಡಿಸು

Examples of distemper in a sentence

[M]y spirits began to sink under the Burden of a strong Distemper, and Nature was exhausted with the Violence of the Fever […]1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam]...
To some extent the Nore Mutiny may be regarded as analogous to the distempering irruption of contagious fever in a frame constitutionally sound, and which anon throws it off.1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter III.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published...

Forms of distemper

Noun
plural	distempers
Verb
third-person singular present	distempers
present participle	distempering
past participle	distempered
past	distempered
second-person singular present (archaic)	distemperest
second-person singular past (archaic)	distemperedst
third-person singular present (archaic)	distempereth

Origin of distemper

From Old French destemprer, from Latin distemperare.

Words formed from distemper

Phrases with distemper

canine distemper viruses

Words that rhyme with distemper

Questions about distemper

What does distemper mean?: Distemper means a viral disease of animals, such as dogs and cats, characterised by fever, coughing and catarrh.
What is distemper in Tamil?: Distemper in Tamil is சுவர் வண்ணம், திசுரெம்பர், பதனி. See Distemper meaning in Tamil.
How do you use distemper in a sentence?: [M]y spirits began to sink under the Burden of a strong Distemper, and Nature was exhausted with the Violence of the Fever […]
What part of speech is distemper?: Distemper can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce distemper?: Distemper is pronounced /dɪsˈtɛmpə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of distemper?: The plural of distemper is distempers.

Words near distemper in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: distemper (page history and authors); distemper (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); distemper (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); distemper (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-distemper.wav.

Cite this entry: “distemper.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/distemper. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.