Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Restoration of health; recovery from disease.
- n. A method or course of medical treatment used to restore health.
- n. An agent, such as a drug, that restores health; a remedy.
- n. Something that corrects or relieves a harmful or disturbing situation: The cats proved to be a good cure for our mouse problem.
- n. Ecclesiastical Spiritual charge or care, as of a priest for a congregation.
- n. The office or duties of a curate.
- n. The act or process of preserving a product.
- v. To restore to health.
- v. To effect a recovery from: cure a cold.
- v. To remove or remedy (something harmful or disturbing): cure an evil.
- v. To preserve (meat, for example), as by salting, smoking, or aging.
- v. To prepare, preserve, or finish (a substance) by a chemical or physical process.
- v. To vulcanize (rubber).
- v. To effect a cure or recovery: a medicine that cures.
- v. To be prepared, preserved, or finished by a chemical or physical process: hams curing in the smokehouse.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Care; concern; oversight; charge.
- n. Specifically Spiritual charge; the employment or office of a curate or parish priest; curacy: as, the cure of souls (see below): ordinarily confined in use to the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.
- n. The successful remedial treatment of a disease; the restoration of a sick person to health: as, to effect a cure.
- n. A method or course of remedial treatment for disease, whether successful or not: as, the water-cure.
- n. A remedy for disease; a means of curing disease; that which heals: as, a cure for toothache.
- To take care of; care for.
- To restore to health or to a sound state; heal or make well: as, he was cured of a wound, or of a fever.
- To remove or put an end to by remedial means; heal, as a disease; remedy, as an evil of any kind; remove, as something objectionable.
- To prepare for preservation by drying, salting, etc.: as, to cure hay; to cure fish or beef.
- To care; take care; be careful.
- To effect a cure.
- To become well; be cured.
- n. That which is cured (see cure, v. 4); a product preserved by drying, salting, etc.; a catch of fish so treated.
Wiktionary
- n. A method, device or medication that restores good health.
- n. A solution to a problem.
- n. A process of preservation, as by smoking.
- n. A process of solidification or gelling.
- n. engineering A process whereby a material is caused to form permanent molecular linkages by exposure to chemicals, heat, pressure and/or weathering.
- n. obsolete Care, heed, or attention.
- n. Spiritual charge; care of soul; the office of a parish priest or of a curate;
- n. That which is committed to the charge of a parish priest or of a curate; a curacy.
- v. transitive To restore to health.
- v. transitive To bring (a disease or its bad effects) to an end.
- v. transitive To cause to be rid of (a defect).
- v. transitive To prepare or alter especially by chemical or physical processing for keeping or use.
- v. intransitive To bring about a cure of any kind.
- v. intransitive To be undergoing a chemical or physical process for preservation or use.
- v. intransitive To solidify or gel.
- v. obsolete, intransitive To become healed.
- v. obsolete To pay heed; to care; to give attention.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete Care, heed, or attention.
- n. Spiritual charge; care of soul; the office of a parish priest or of a curate; hence, that which is committed to the charge of a parish priest or of a curate; a curacy.
- n. Medical or hygienic care; remedial treatment of disease; a method of medical treatment.
- n. Act of healing or state of being healed; restoration to health from disease, or to soundness after injury.
- n. Means of the removal of disease or evil; that which heals; a remedy; a restorative.
- v. To heal; to restore to health, soundness, or sanity; to make well; -- said of a patient.
- v. To subdue or remove by remedial means; to remedy; to remove; to heal; -- said of a malady.
- v. To set free from (something injurious or blameworthy), as from a bad habit.
- v. To prepare for preservation or permanent keeping; to preserve, as by drying, salting, etc..
- v. obsolete To pay heed; to care; to give attention.
- v. To restore health; to effect a cure.
- v. To become healed.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a medicine or therapy that cures disease or relieve pain
- v. be or become preserved
- v. prepare by drying, salting, or chemical processing in order to preserve
- v. provide a cure for, make healthy again
- v. make (substances) hard and improve their usability
Etymologies
- From Old French, cure ("care, cure, healing, cure of souls"), from Latin cura ("care, medical attendance, cure") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, medical treatment, from Latin cūra, from Archaic Latin coisa-. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We rarely use the word cure in metastatic disease, Canetta said, but some patients getting Yervoy have now been followed for four years or more.”
USA Today: Bristol-Myers pitches its cancer medicine pipeline
“Komen, though, is certainly a job creator, since it does employ a lot of lawyers suing people who want to use the word "cure" in their fundraising.”
The Huffington Post: William O'Rourke: Halftime in Pink America
“While I agree with freedom of speech even for the speech I hate, the cure is as Jefferson suggested: To paste the fat a$$es of the abusers with scorn and calumny so that they will never be allowed to walk in polite (and sane) society again.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » One Thing We Know About Elena Kagan’s Views on Particular Free Speech Cases
“If we are ever going to use the word 'cure', the immune system is going to have to come into play," says Stephen Hodi , director of the melanoma center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.”
“He's made it part of what he calls a cure for homosexuality.”
“That paralysis has been a condition existing for forty years, but we think we have found the right doctor and that the cure is at hand.”
“No doubt it has; and in these cases the cure is a more complicated matter.”
“If they aren't punishing poor women to advance their own political agenda, they are suing local groups for using the word "cure" in their local events.”
“And thus the cure is the sooner wrought, the nobleman's mistake rectified, and his faith confirmed; so that the thing was better done in Christ's way.”
“-- There are relapses in the diseases of the mind as in those of the body; what we call a cure is often no more than an intermission or change of disease.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cure’.
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Band or Brand?
Band names that are also common words or phrases.
genesis, who, beatles, journey, germs, sublime, doors, cars, nirvana, bangles, tool, pixies and 192 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Specifically
Being a list of words which have "specifically" in their definitions.
recompose, specifically, Dutch, abstinence, discipline, virtue, namely, opening, century, amalgamation, cup, second and 303 more...
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fix
set, anchor, mend, rivet, moor, clinch, emend, circumfix, fixated, cefixime, fixed cost, confix and 87 more...
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Holli
Cancer, Mercury, water, moon, dark, emotion, nostalgia, angst, brooding, isolation, shadow, corner and 145 more...
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Descriptive
The present, the future. Goals, wishes, hopes.
capricious, sericeous, sleek, flawless, charming, skilled, long-haired, versatile, beautiful, witty, fair, thin and 145 more...
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zzyyxx's Words
plethora, drout, functional, rye, wring, doubt, cognative, weird, gnaw, surcease, rend, languish and 438 more...
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Beknownst1981's list
I love words, especially the ones I make up with my friends.
translucent meat ..., beknownst (knew), plethora, curmudgeon, wanderlust, actually, differentiate, bearded, hobbit feet, female, sexy time, librarian and 220 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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eloise's Words
embrace, perfect, imagine, dance, water, color, echo, hollow, sorrow, beauty, impossible, violet and 438 more...
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cast a spell
amulet, charm, magic, conjuror, Prospero, candle, cure, flame, hierophant, tarot, cast, cauldron and 20 more...
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four-letter words starting with 'c'
clap, claw, cast, cart, cork, cord, care, cram, corn, cusp, cure, curt and 85 more...
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Eye Of The Tiger
more words
evacuating, absolutely, basilisk, genius, vecalized, realized, modestly, delighted, diadem, still, naturally, trotted and 42 more...
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Trusting Words
or their opposites. What we seem to lack in the present time
abide, abode, fiance, finance, fiducial, fiduciary, affiance, affiant, affadavit, confidant, confide, confident and 36 more...
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language of the gods, the
Music on my DJ
pixies, mountain goats, spoon, soulwax, toadies, spooks, squish, stereolab, talking heads, subtle, teeth, okkervil river and 56 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cure.

Robert Tolmach Cure - isn't there a saying "the cure is worse than the disease (or illness, or something)?
and another synonym = solve. Cure the problem; solve the problem. Jul 16, 2009