curative

[ kyoo r-uh-tiv ]

/ ˈkyʊər ə tɪv /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR curative ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

serving to cure or heal; pertaining to curing or remedial treatment; remedial.

noun

a curative agent; remedy.

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of curative

1375–1425; late Middle English < Middle French curatif < Medieval Latin cūrātīvus, equivalent to Late Latin cūrāt(us) (past participle of curāre to care for, attend to; see cure); see -ive

Related forms

cur·a·tive·ly, adverbnon·cur·a·tive, adjectivenon·cur·a·tive·ly, adverbnon·cur·a·tive·ness, noun

sub·cur·a·tive, noun, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for curative

But in all cases, the appropriate course of antibiotics has been curative.
Predator Doctors Take Advantage of Patients With ‘Chronic Lyme’ Scam|Russell Saunders|September 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
For thousands of years men and women in many cultures have used cannabis as a curative and a source of fiber and oil.
Victory for Pot Means Beginning of the End of Our Crazy Drug War|Martin A. Lee|November 8, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Nora could arm and disarm within a sentence, could wield a barb and its curative salve within a phrase.
Remembering Nora Ephron as Our Dorothy Parker, but More|Stephen Schiff|June 27, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn credited kombucha with curative properties in his novel The Cancer Ward.
Is Celebrity Favorite Kombucha Really a Health and Anti-Aging Cure?|Anneli Rufus|February 28, 2012|DAILY BEAST

Since the liver regenerates, “that can be curative—or at least it can let patients do a lot better.”
Jobs’s Unorthodox Treatment|Sharon Begley|October 6, 2011|DAILY BEAST
And yet if I suffer it can only be with what I may call a curative suffering.
The Conquest of Fear|Basil King
Did you never read Sweetsir's novel, dashed off in the intervals of curative perspiration at a German bath?
My Lady's Money|Wilkie Collins
But the work of water and its curative effects can be easily seen and understood.
A Guide to Health|Mahatma Gandhi
I am much interested in making known the excellence of the Cluthe Truss, for I have confidence in its curative process.
Cluthe's Advice to the Ruptured|Chas. Cluthe & Sons
Illnesses are nature's curative processes, so the doctors tell us.
Second String|Anthony Hope

British Dictionary definitions for curative

curative

/ (ˈkjʊərətɪv) /

adjective

able or tending to cure

noun

anything able to heal or cure

Derived Formscuratively, adverbcurativeness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for curative

curative

adj.

early 15c., from Old French curatif (15c.) "curative, healing," from Latin curat-, past participle stem of curare "to cure" (see cure (v.)). As a noun, attested from 1857.

Medicine definitions for curative

curative

[ kyur′ə-tĭv ]

adj.

Serving or tending to cure.

Of or relating to the cure of disease.

n.

Something that cures; a remedy.