distempered

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈtɛmpəd/

Verb

distempered

1. simple past and past participle of distemper

Adjective

distempered (comparative more distempered, superlative most distempered)

1. (archaic) Affected with or suffering from distemper.

   Synonym: diseased

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 153”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,
     And thither hied, a sad distemper’d guest,
     But found no cure: the bath for my help lies
     Where Cupid got new fire—my mistress’ eyes.

   • 1722 March, H[enry] F[oe] [pseudonym; Daniel Defoe], A Journal of the Plague Year: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] Nutt […]; J. Roberts […]; A. Dodd […]; and J. Graves […], →OCLC, page 88:

     Infection generally came into the Houses of the Citizens, by Means of their Servants, who, they were obliged to send up and down the Streets for Necessaries […] and who going necessarily thro’ the Streets into Shops, Markets, and the like, it was impossible, but that they should one way or other, meet with distempered people, who conveyed the fatal Breath into them […]