Skip to main content
distempered

distempered

9.1
Painted with a traditional water based paint used on walls and furniture
  • adjective
  • Archaic
translation icon : pintado con témpera
  • She admired the distempered finish on the antique furniture in the room.

Examples

  • On the distempered walls were pictures.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • From behind the distempered non-wool poked the collar of a tartan shirt.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • The old schoolhouse had distempered walls that added character to the building.

  • The artist chose a distempered technique to give his mural a unique texture.

Synonyms

painted
vsdistempered
1 1.0

Covered with a layer of paint

is made using a traditional water based coating for walls and furniture
whitewashed
vsdistempered
1 4.2

Covered with a thin white paint used on walls or fences

is applied as a traditional water based coating not limited to white mixtures
stained
vsdistempered
1 2.6

Marked or colored by something that is hard to remove

involves an overall surface coating rather than localized discoloration or marks
coveralled
vsdistempered
7.7

Completely covered in mud, paint or dust

is specifically a traditional water based surface coating not just any covering

How Coated

sealed
2.5
varnished
4.7
painted
1 1.0
distempered
  • Archaic
9.1
bare
217 2.2

Surface Forms

distempered positive

Morphology

distempered = distemper (transparent) = distemper + ed

Formed from the noun 'distemper' (paint) + '-ed', meaning 'coated/painted with distemper', which is directly inferable if the paint sense is known.

Etymology

Distempered also comes from the older word distemper, a kind of wall paint made by mixing glue and chalk, with temper meaning 'mix'. So to be distempered can simply mean 'coated with that traditional paint'.