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cure (kyr)
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n.
1.
a. A drug or course of medical treatment used to restore health: discovered a new cure for ulcers.
b. Restoration of health; recovery from disease: the likelihood of cure.
c. Something that corrects or relieves a harmful or disturbing situation: The cats proved to be a good cure for our mouse problem.
2. Ecclesiastical Spiritual charge or care, as of a priest for a congregation.
3. The office or duties of a curate.
4. The act or process of preserving a product.
v. cured, cur·ing, cures
v.tr.
1.
a. To cause to be free of a disease or unhealthy condition: medicine that cured the patient of gout.
b. To cause to be free of, to lose interest in, or to stop doing something: a remark that cured me of the illusion that I might be a good singer; a bad reaction that cured him of the desire to smoke cigars; a visit to the dentist that cured her of eating sweets.
2. To eliminate (a disease, for example) from the body by medical or other treatment; cause recovery from: new antibiotics to cure infections.
3. To remove or remedy (something harmful or disturbing): cure a social evil.
4. To preserve (meat, for example), as by salting, smoking, or aging.
5. To prepare, preserve, or finish (a substance) by a chemical or physical process.
6. To vulcanize (rubber).
v.intr.
1. To effect a cure or recovery: a drug that cures without side effects.
2. To be prepared, preserved, or finished by a chemical or physical process: hams curing in the smokehouse.
[Middle English, from Old French, medical treatment, from Latin cūra, from Archaic Latin coisa-.]
cureless adj.
curer n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 
cu·ré (ky-rā, kyrā′)
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n.
A parish priest, especially in a French-speaking community.
[French, from Old French, from Medieval Latin cūrātus; see CURATE1.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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