Word.ws English Dictionary

cure

/kjɔː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/kjɵː/

cure noun: a method, device or medication that restores good health.

Noun (1)

cure (plural cures)

  1. A method, device or medication that restores good health.
    • When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
    • 'Cause if there's a cure for this, I don't want it / I don't want it1976, Marilyn McLeod, Pamela Sawyer, “Love Hangover”, performed by Diana Ross
  2. An act of healing or state of being healed; restoration to health after a disease, or to soundness after injury.
    • Past hope! past cure!c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • I do cures to-day and to-morrow.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 13:32
  3. (figuratively) A solution to a problem.
    • Cold, hunger, prisons, ills without a cure.1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
    • the proper cure of such prejudices1763, Richard Hurd, On the Uses of Foreign Travel
  4. A process of preservation, as by smoking.
  5. Cured fish.
    • Well into the twentieth century, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia's Grand Banks fleet stayed with sail power. "The Lunenburg cure," heavily salted on the schooners and then dried on flakes along the rocky sheltered coastline, was traded in the Caribbean.1997, Mark Kurlansky, Cod, page 128
  6. A process of solidification or gelling.
  7. A process whereby a material is caused to form permanent molecular linkages by exposure to chemicals, heat, pressure or weathering.
  8. (obsolete) Care, heed, or attention.
    • vicarages of great cure, but small value1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
  9. Spiritual charge; care of soul; the office of a parish priest or of a curate.
    • This worke devysed is
      For suche as do amys,
      And specyally to controule
      Such as have cure of soule, […]
      No good priest to offende,
      But suche dawes to amend, […]c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 61, lines 1–4, 25–26
    • [T]he Appropriator was the incumbent Parſon, and had the Cure of the Souls of the Pariſhioners, and that upon the Preſentation of the Appropriation, or upon the Diſſolution of the Abbey, the Church became void, and preſentative, as other Churches upon Reſignation, or Death of the Incumbent.1704, Clem[ent] Spelman, “To the Reader”, in Henry Spelman, De Non Temerandis Ecclesiis, Churches Not to Be Violated. A Tract of the Rights and Respects Due unto Churches. […], 6th edition, London...
  10. That which is committed to the charge of a parish priest or of a curate.
    Synonyms:
    curacy

Verb

cure (third-person singular simple present cures, present participle curing, simple past and past participle cured)

  1. (transitive) To restore to health.
    • Unaided nature cured him.
    • “Enough,
      Yet not enough. A bullet through and through,
      High in the breast. Nothing but what good care
      And medicine and rest, and you a week,
      Can cure me of to go again.” The same
      Grim giving to do over for them both.1923 October, Robert Frost, “[Grace Notes.] Not to Keep.”, in New Hampshire […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 97
    Synonyms:
    heal
  2. (transitive) To bring (a disease or its bad effects) to an end.
    • Unaided nature cured his ailments.
    • Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear, / Is able with the change to kill and cure.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. (transitive) To cause to be rid of (a defect).
    • Experience will cure him of his naïveté.
  4. (transitive) To prepare or alter, especially by chemical or physical processing for keeping or use.
    • The smoke and heat cures the meat.
    • Spanish ham is air-cured.
  5. To preserve (food), typically by salting.
  6. (intransitive) To bring about a cure of any kind.
  7. (intransitive) To undergo a chemical or physical process for preservation or use.
    • The meat was put in the smokehouse to cure.
  8. (intransitive) To solidify or gel.
    • The parts were curing in the autoclave.
  9. (intransitive, obsolete) To become healed.
    • One desperate grief cures with another's languish.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  10. (obsolete) To pay heed; to care; to give attention.

Noun (2)

cure (plural cures)

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang) An eccentric person.
    • The mud was thick — the crossing clean — / A well dressed man, genteel of mien — / Walked through the first (he might be poor), / The sweeper muttered, "He's a Cure."1855, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch, volumes 29-32, page 201
    • He’s quite a nice gentleman, though, to be sure, he does look a cure.1913, Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger

Proper noun capitalized: Cure

Cure (plural Cures)

  1. A surname.

cure meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

cure in Hindi

method, device or medication that restores good health
उपचार upcār
act of healing or state of being healed
उपचार upcār
solution to a problem
उपाय upāy, समाधान samādhān
to restore to health
इलाज करना ilāj karnā, उपचार करना upcār karnā

cure in Tamil

தீர்வு, மருந்து, நிவாரணி, குணமாக்கு, குணமாகு, பதனமுறை

cure in Urdu

to restore to health
علاج کرنا 'ilāj karnā

cure in Bengali

method, device or medication that restores good health
ওষুধ ōśudh, ঔষধ ōuśodh, দাওয়াই daōẇai, এলাজ elaj, শাফা śapha
More languagesFewer languages
cure in Malayalam
വാശി vāśi
cure in Kannada
ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸೆ, ಔಷಧ, ಮದ್ದು, ರೋಗ ವಾಸಿಯಾಗುವುದು
cure in Punjabi
دوا davā, ਦਵਾ davā
cure in Odia
ସଜାଡ଼ିବା sajāṛibā
cure in Tagalog
lunas, gamot
cure in Arabic
شِفَاء šifāʔ, شَفَى šafā
cure in Persian
درمان darmân
cure in Thai
รักษา rák-sǎa, เยียวยา yiao-yaa
cure in Vietnamese
chữa, chữa bệnh
cure in Myanmar
ကု ku., ကုသ ku.sa.
Kashmiri
بٔلرَن bạlran

Examples of cure in a sentence

  • The cattle were made to pass through the smoke raised by this miraculous fire, and their cure was looked upon as certain.1892, Michael Aislaibie Denham, The Denham Tracts, volume 2, page 50:
  • From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins.2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:

All 40 example sentences with cure

Synonyms of cure

All synonyms of cure

Forms of cure

Noun
pluralcures
Verb
third-person singular presentcures
present participlecuring
past participlecured
pastcured
Proper noun
pluralCures

Past tense of cure: cured

Plural of cure: cures

Origin of cure

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.

From Middle English curen, from Old French curer, from Latin cūrāre. Partially displaced Old English ġehǣlan, whence Modern English heal.

From curiosity.

Words formed from cure

Phrases with cure

Words that rhyme with cure

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cure

What does cure mean?
Cure means a method, device or medication that restores good health.
What is cure in Hindi?
Cure in Hindi is उपचार (upcār), उपाय (upāy), समाधान (samādhān). See Cure meaning in Hindi.
How do you use cure in a sentence?
The cattle were made to pass through the smoke raised by this miraculous fire, and their cure was looked upon as certain.
What part of speech is cure?
Cure can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cure?
Cure is pronounced /kjɔː/.
What is the plural of cure?
The plural of cure is cures.

Words near cure in the dictionary

  1. curds
  2. curds and whey
  3. curdwort
  4. Curdworth
  5. curdy
  6. cure
  7. cure cancer
  8. cure down
  9. cure for cancer
  10. cure time
  11. cure times

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cure (page history and authors); Cure (page history and authors); cure (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); വാശി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); cure (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); دوا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ସଜାଡ଼ିବା (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cure.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cure.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cure. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.