Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DIS-TEM'PER-A-TURE, n.

1. Bad temperature; intemperateness; excess of heat or cold, or of other qualities; a noxious state; as, the distemperature of the air or climate.
2. Violent tumultuousness; outrageousness. – Johnson.
3. Perturbation of mind. – Shak.
4. Confusion; commixture of contrarieties; loss of regularity; disorder. – Shak.
5. Slight illness; indisposition. – Brewer.