Definitions

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  • verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of distemper.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • That by the extraordinary heat, the ferment of the blood being raised too high, and the tone of the stomach relaxed, when the weather breaks the blood palls, and like overfermented liquors is depauperated, or turns eager and sharp, and there's a crude digestion, whence the name distempers may be supposed to ensue.

    Medicine in Virginia, 1607-1699 Thomas Proctor Hughes

  • In formulating the new method he first pointed out the defects of the learning of his time, which he classified under the head of "distempers," three in number, and as follows:

    The History of Education; educational practice and progress considered as a phase of the development and spread of western civilization Ellwood Patterson Cubberley 1904

  • Show that the three "distempers" described by Bacon characterize the three great stages in human progress from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries.

    The History of Education; educational practice and progress considered as a phase of the development and spread of western civilization Ellwood Patterson Cubberley 1904

  • For many years, too, it has been conventional wisdom that if only the conflict could be resolved, other distempers of the Muslim world—from dictatorship to terrorism—would find their own resolution.

    Israel Will Never Have Peace Bret Stephens 2011

  • Although many reporters have been surprised and nonplussed by the good vibes and "substance"-free living they find in the parks, a few act as if they can hardly wait for something worse to set in: Just look at all the indecision, the self-indulgence, the distempers, the slovenliness!

    Jim Sleeper: Behind The Snarking About OWS Jim Sleeper 2011

  • "Time is the best cure for such youthful distempers."

    Chapter 37 2010

  • Johnson's curmudgeonly nature thankfully makes him no easy subject for saint-makers, but the litany of sufferings he endured is not small, making his achievements appear all the greater for having come from a body so wracked with tics and distempers.

    The Powers of Dr. Johnson O'Hagan, Andrew 2009

  • These leftist opponents of the Shah, these mainly Mossadeghites, who traced the distempers of the Shah's regime, and blamed for the very existence of the Shah's regime, to the coup against Mossadegh, were allied with, and thought they were using, those who saw Islam as the True Path and salvation.

    Open thread 2009

  • It is one of the grave distempers of our times, this prejudice towards the Jewish people, their nation and their collective identity.

    The war against the Jews (13) 2008

  • It is one of the grave distempers of our times, this prejudice towards the Jewish people, their nation and their collective identity.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

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