US /kjɔː(r)/ UK /kjɵː/
verb noun Freq #2403

Meanings

  1. 1
    verb

    To make an illness or a sick person healthy again.

    The new medicine cured her infection within days.

  2. 2
    noun

    A medicine or treatment that makes an illness go away.

    Scientists are still searching for a cure for the disease.

  3. 3
    verb

    To preserve food such as meat or fish by drying, salting, or smoking it.

    They cure the ham with salt and smoke for several weeks.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 verb · to make an illness or a... heal
2 noun · a medicine or treatment... curativetreatment
Word family
Forms curablecuredcurescuring
Derived forms anti-curecurabilitycure-allcurebiecurelesscurerdry-curefaith-curefire-cureincurableking-curemiscure

Etymology

From Middle English cure, borrowed from Old French cure (“care, cure, healing, cure of souls”), from Latin cura (“care, medical attendance, cure”). Displaced native Old English hǣlu, but this survived as heal.

View etymology graph ->

Topics

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