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cure

(kyr)

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.

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-.]

cureless adj.

curer n.

cu·ré

(ky-rā, kyrā′)

A parish priest, especially in a French-speaking community.

[French, from Old French, from Medieval Latin cūrātus; see CURATE¹.]

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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