humours

Noun

humour (usually uncountable, plural humours)

1. (UK, usually) The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
   • She has a great sense of humour, and I always laugh a lot whenever we get together.

   Synonyms:

   amusingness, comedy, comicality, wit, witticism

2. (UK, usually) A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
   • He was in a particularly vile humour that afternoon.

   Synonyms:

   mood

3. (UK, archaic, historical, usually) Any of the fluids in an animal body, especially the four "cardinal humours" of blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm that were believed to control the health and mood of the human body.
   • A humour is a liquid or fluent part of the body, comprehended in it, for the preservation of it; and is either innate or born with us, or adventitious and acquisite.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   bodily fluid

4. (UK, usually) Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
5. (UK, obsolete, usually) Moist vapour, moisture.

See all 6 meanings of humour