nostrum

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But my great nostrum is the use of cold water, inwardly and outwardly, on all occasions, and total disregard of precaution against catching cold.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A medicine whose effectiveness is unproved and whose ingredients are usually secret; a quack remedy.
  2. noun A favorite but usually ineffective remedy for problems or evils.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • It did not really contain a trace of Coltsfoot, and the nostrum was provocative of inflammation, because of the spirit in excess. —  Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure
  • I am opposed to it because I see clearly that dropping Tariff Reform will knock the bottom out of a policy which I believe is not only right in itself, but is the only effective defence of the Union and of many other things which are very dear to us--I mean a policy of constructive Imperialism, and of steady, consistent, unhasting, and unresting Social Reform I have never advocated Tariff Reform as a nostrum or as a panacea. —  Constructive Imperialism
  • The philosophers addicted to each sect, and brought up under its influence, may exhaust criticism and sophistry to show that all faith and effort would be vain unless their particular nostrum was accepted; and so a curious party philosophy arises in which, after discrediting nature and reason in general, the sectary puts forward some mythical echo of reason and nature as the one saving and necessary truth. —  The Life of Reason
  • His great nostrum--303 240. —  The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4
  • But my great nostrum is the use of cold water, inwardly and outwardly, on all occasions, and total disregard of precaution against catching cold. —  The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

meum ·  quisquam ·  facere ·  proprium ·  oculis ·  dominum ·  eorum ·  dicis ·  alio ·  amicum ·  huc ·  patrem

Used in the same contextWord Family

nostrum:   nostrums
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Latin nostrum (remedium), our (remedy), neuter of noster; see nes-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Latin nostrum, neuter of noster, our, ours, from nos (genitive nostrum), we (= Greek dual νῶϊ, Attic νώ = Sanskrit nas), plural of ego, I: see I. The name is supposed to refer to the habit of quacks and other advertisers of claiming special virtue for their wares as “our own make.”
 

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/ˈnɑstrəm/
by American Heritage

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