| distemper | 1. An undue or unnatural temper, or disproportionate mixture of parts. 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. "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. "Little faults proceeding on distemper." (Shak) "Some frenzy distemper had got into his head." (Bunyan) 5. Political disorder; tumult. 6. A preparation of opaque or body colours, 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. A painting done with this preparation. Synonym: Disease, disorder, sickness, illness, malady, indisposition, ailment. See Disease. See: Distemper, and cf. Destemprer. 1. To temper or mix unduly; to make disproportionate; to change the due proportions of. "When . . . The humors in his body ben distempered." (Chaucer) 2. To derange the functions of, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual; to disorder; to disease. "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." 4. To intoxicate. "The courtiers reeling, And the duke himself, I dare not say distempered, But kind, and in his tottering chair carousing." (Massinger) 5. To mix (colours) in the way of distemper; as, to distemper colours with size. Origin: OF. Destemprer, destremper, to distemper, F. Detremper 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. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| distemper virus | See: canine distemper virus, feline panleukopenia virus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| distemper virus, canine | A species of morbillivirus causing distemper in dogs, wolves, foxes, raccoons, and ferrets. (12 Dec 1998) |
| distemper virus, phocine | A species of morbillivirus causing distemper in seals. (12 Dec 1998) |
| canine distemper | A highly contagious systemic disease of dogs caused by the canine distemper virus and characterised by a diphasic fever, leukopenia, gastrointestinal and respiratory catarrh and, frequently, pneumonic and neurological complications; the disease also occurs in foxes, wolves, ferrets, mink, skunks, and raccoons. Synonym: distemper. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| canine distemper virus | An RNA virus of the genus Morbillivirus, a member of the family Paramyxoviridae, that causes canine distemper. Synonym: dog distemper virus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cat distemper virus | A virus of the genus Parvovirus that causes panleukopenia; the virus infects all Felidae, raccoons and mink, but not dogs or other Canidae. Synonym: cat distemper virus, panleukopenia virus of cats. (05 Mar 2000) |
| dog distemper virus | An RNA virus of the genus Morbillivirus, a member of the family Paramyxoviridae, that causes canine distemper. Synonym: dog distemper virus. (05 Mar 2000) |
| feline distemper | A highly contagious and fatal disease of cats, particularly young cats, caused by feline panleukopenia virus, a member of the family Parvoviridae, and manifested by severe leukopenia, prostration, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. Synonym: distemper, feline agranulocytosis, feline distemper, feline infectious enteritis. (05 Mar 2000) |