cure

¹

[kyoor]

noun

1. a means of healing or restoring to health; remedy.

2. a method or course of remedial treatment, as for disease.

   Synonyms: antidote, specific, restorative, remedy

3. successful remedial treatment; restoration to health.

4. a means of correcting or relieving anything that is troublesome or detrimental.

   The administration is seeking a cure for inflation.

5. the act or a method of preserving meat, fish, etc., by smoking, salting, or the like.

6. spiritual or religious charge of the people in a certain district.

7. the office or district of a curate or parish priest.

verb (used with object)

cured, curing 

1. to restore to health.

2. to relieve or rid of something detrimental, such as an illness or a bad habit.

3. to correct (a document, especially a mail-in ballot) in order to make it valid.

   If the voter’s signature is missing, the county board sends them a certification form allowing the voter to cure the ballot so it can be counted.

4. to prepare (meat, fish, etc.) for preservation by salting, drying, etc.

5. to promote hardening of (fresh concrete or mortar), as by keeping it damp.

6. to process (rubber, tobacco, etc.) as by fermentation or aging.

verb (used without object)

cured, curing 

1. to effect a cure.

2. to become cured.

curé

²

[kyoo-rey, kyoor-ey, ky-rey]

noun

plural

curés 

1. (in France) a parish priest.

cure

¹

/ kjʊə /

verb

1. (tr) to get rid of (an ailment, fault, or problem); heal

2. (tr) to restore to health or good condition

3. (intr) to bring about a cure

4. (tr) to preserve (meat, fish, etc) by salting, smoking, etc

5. (tr)

   1. to treat or finish (a substance) by chemical or physical means

   2. to vulcanize (rubber)

   3. to allow (a polymer) to set often using heat or pressure

6. (tr) to assist the hardening of (concrete, mortar, etc) by keeping it moist

noun

1. a return to health, esp after specific treatment

2. any course of medical therapy, esp one proved effective in combating a disease

3. a means of restoring health or improving a condition, situation, etc

4. the spiritual and pastoral charge of a parish

   the cure of souls

5. a process or method of preserving meat, fish, etc, by salting, pickling, or smoking

curé

²

/ ˈkjʊəreɪ /

noun

1. a parish priest in France

Other Word Forms

• curer noun
• cureless adjective
• curelessly adverb
• half-cured adjective
• overcured adjective
• semicured adjective
• uncured adjective
• well-cured adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of cure¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, Old French noun cure, from Latin cūra “care”; verb derivative of the noun

Origin of cure²

1645–55; < French, Old French; modeled on Medieval Latin cūrātus parish priest; curate

Word History and Origins

Origin of cure¹

(n) C13: from Old French, from Latin cūra care; in ecclesiastical sense, from Medieval Latin cūra spiritual charge; (vb) C14: from Old French curer, from Latin cūrāre to attend to, heal, from cūra care

Origin of cure²

French, from Medieval Latin cūrātus; see _curate ¹

Idioms and Phrases

see kill or cure; ounce of prevention (is worth a pound of cure); sure cure.

Synonym Study

Cure, heal, remedy imply making well, whole, or right. Cure is applied to the eradication of disease or sickness: to cure a headache. Heal suggests the making whole of wounds, sores, etc.: to heal a burn. Remedy applies especially to making wrongs right: to remedy a mistake.

Example Sentences

The city’s appetizing stores, which first appeared in the late 19th century, are a type of delicatessen that only sells products such as smoked and cured fish, dairy and nuts due to kosher law.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It will find new cures for deadly diseases, solve climate change and invent an inexhaustible supply of clean energy, they argue.

Read more on BBC

A girl and her parents are traveling in search of a cure for the mother’s illness.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The promise is that once we achieve this superintelligence, it will be able to cure cancer or solve climate change—and, presumably, make its owners fantastically rich.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The discussion of a treatment or even “cure” for autism has brought to the forefront the highly variable needs in the autism community.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• minister