cure  (ky r)
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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 -r ā, ky r ā′)
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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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