cure

—cureless, adj. —curelessly, adv. —curer, n.

/kyoor/, n., v., cured, curing.

n.

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

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

3. successful remedial treatment; restoration to health.

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

v.t.

8. to restore to health.

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

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

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

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

v.i.

13. to effect a cure.

14. to become cured.

[1250-1300; (v.) ME curen < MF curer < L curare to take care of, deriv. of cura care; (n.) ME < OF cure < L cura]

Syn. 2. remedy, restorative, specific, antidote. 9. 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 esp. to making wrongs right: to remedy a mistake.

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