humors

1. 1
   more than onenoun

   Plural of humor.

   Medieval physicians tried to balance the body's humors to treat disease.

   Her shifting humors made her difficult to predict from one day to the next.

   Note

   A plural that only some meanings of humor allow. The noun is usually uncountable, so the comedy sense rarely takes an -s. Humors belongs instead to the older count senses: the bodily fluids early physicians tried to balance, and the moods or temperaments that grew from them. It is the US spelling of humours, and the same spelling also serves as the verb form (she humors him).

2. 2
   present formverb

   Third-person singular simple present of humor.

   The nurse humors the elderly patient's harmless requests to keep him calm.

   Whenever he gets stubborn, she simply humors him and moves the conversation along.

   Note

   Only a singular subject takes this -s form. He, she, it or a singular noun pairs with it, as in the nurse humors him. With I, you, we and they the bare verb returns: they humor him. Like the plural noun, it keeps the American -or spelling where British usage writes -our.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2