cure
Definitions
To make a sick person well again; to relieve a disease or problem.
治愈，治好；解决（问题）。
To preserve food (meat, fish) by salting, drying, or smoking.
（用腌、熏、晾等方式）加工保存（食物）。
A remedy or treatment that restores health; a solution to a problem.
疗法，药物；解决办法。
Root Breakdown
Root-derivedStraight from cūra (care): to cure is to care a sick person back to health, and a cure is what does it. The food sense ('cured ham') comes from the older meaning 'to take care of / treat' — preserving meat is a way of caring for it so it keeps.
Root cur still carries 16 more wordsWhy It Means This
The 'cured ham' sense puzzles learners. It is not metaphor from healing — it preserves the original Latin sense of cūra as 'taking care of, treating' something. Salting and smoking meat is literally 'treating' it.
Common Collocations
- 1.find a cure找到疗法
- 2.cure a disease治愈疾病
- 3.miracle cure神奇疗法
- 4.no known cure无已知疗法
Example Sentences
- 1.
There is still no cure for the common cold.
- 2.
The new drug can cure the infection within a week.
- 3.
Fresh air and rest cured her exhaustion.
- 4.
The ham is cured for several months before sale.
Easily Confused
cure vs heal vs treat — cure removes the disease entirely (cure cancer); treat just gives care, with no promise of success (treat a patient); heal is the body mending itself or a wound closing (the wound healed). You treat someone hoping to cure them; tissue heals on its own.