Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CUR'A-BLE, a. [See Cure.]

That may be healed or cured; admitting a remedy; as, a curable wound or disease; a curable evil. – Dryden.

CUR'A-BLE-NESS, n.

Possibility of being cured, healed or remedied.

CU'RA-CY, or CU'RATE-SHIP, n. [Sec Cure and Curate.]

1. The office or employment of a curate; the employment of a clergyman who represents the incumbent or beneficiary of a church, parson or vicar, and officiates in his stead. – Swift.
2. A benefice held by license from the bishop.

CU-RAR'I-NA, n.

An alkaloid obtained from the Lasiostoma Curare, or the Woorara tree of South America.

CU'RATE, n. [L. curator, or curatus, from cura, care. See Cure.]

1. A clergyman in the church of England, who is employed to perform divine service in the place of the incumbent, parson or vicar. He must be licensed by the bishop or ordinary, and having no fixed estate in the curacy, he may be removed at pleasure. But some curates are perpetual. Encyc.
2. One employed to perform the duties of another. – Dryden.

CU'RA-TIVE, a.

Relating to the cure of diseases; tending to cure. – Arbuthnot.

CU-RA'TOR, n. [L. See Cure.]

1. One who has the care and superintendence of any thing. – Swift.
2. A guardian appointed by law. – Ayliffe.
3. Among the Romans, a trustee of the affairs and interests of a person emancipated or interdicted. Also, one appointed to regulate the price of merchandise in the cities, and to superintend the customs and tributes. – Encyc.
4. In the United Provinces, or Holland, the Curator of a University superintends the affairs of the institution, the administration of the revenues, the conduct of the professors, &c. – Encyc.

CU-RA'TRIX, n.

She that cures or heals. – Cudworth.

CURB, n. [Fr. courber, to bend; Russ. koroblyu, to bend, to draw in, to straiten.]

1. In the manege, a chain of iron made fast to the upper part of the branches of the bridle, in a hole called the eye, and running over the beard of the horse. It consists of three parts; the hook, fixed to the eye of the branch; the chain or links; and the two rings or mails. – Encyc.
2. Restraint; check; hinderance. Religion should operate as an effectual curb to the passions.
3. A frame or a wall round the mouth of a well.
4. [Fr. courbe; It. corba, a disease and a basket.] A hard and callous swelling on the hind part of the hock of a horse's leg, attended with stiffness, and sometimes pain and lameness. – Encyc. A tumor on the inside of a horse's hoof. – Johnson. A swelling beneath the elbow of a horse's hoof. – Bailey.

CURB, v.t.

1. To restrain; to guide and manage; as a horse. – Milton.
2. To restrain; to check; to hold back; to confine; to keep in subjection; as, to curb the passions. And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild. – Milton.
3. To furnish or surround with a curb, as a well.
4. To bend. [Not used.]

CURB'ED, pp.

Restrained; checked; kept in subjection; furnished with a curb.

CURB'ING, n.

A check.

CURB'ING, ppr.

Holding back; checking; restraining.

CURB'LESS, a.

Having no curb or restraint.

CURB'-STONE, n.

A stone placed at the edge of a pavement, to hold the work together. It is written sometimes kerb or kirb.

CURD, n. [Ir. cruth; Scot. cruds. Sometimes in English, crud. The primary sense is to congeal or coagulate. See Crystal.]

The coagulated or thickened part of milk, which is formed into cheese, or, in some countries, eaten as common food. The word may sometimes perhaps be used for the coagulated part of any liquor. – Bacon.

CURD, v.t.

To cause to coagulate; to turn to curd. – Shak.

CURD'ED, pp.

Coagulated.

CURD'LE, v.t. [Sometimes written crudle, See Curdo.]

1. To coagulate or concrete; to thicken, or change into, curd. Milk curdles by a mixture of runnet.
2. To thicken; to congeal; as, the blood curdles in the veins.

CURD'LE, v.t.

1. To change into curd; to cause to thicken, to coagulate, or concrete. Runnet or brandy curdles milk. At Florence they curdle their milk with artichoke flowers. – Encyc.
2. To congeal or thicken. The recital curdled my blood.

CURD'LED, pp.

Coagulated; congealed.

CURD'LING, ppr.

Concreting; coagulating.

CURD'Y, a.

Like curd; full of curd; coagulated. – Arbuthnot.

CURE, n. [L. cura; Fr. cure; L. curo; to cure, to take care, to prepare; W. cûr, care, a blow or stroke, affliction; curaw; to beat, throb, strike; curiaw, to trouble, to vex, to pine, or waste away; Fr. curer, to cleanse; “se curer les dents,” to pick the teeth; It. cura, care, diligence; curare, to cure, attend, protect; also, to value or esteem; Sp. cura, cure, remedy, guardianship; curar, to administer medicines; to salt, as meat; to season, as timber; to bleach thread or linen; to take care; to recover from sickness; curioso, curious, neat, clean, handsome, fine, careful. The radical sense of this word is, to strain, stretch, extend, which gives the sense of healing, that is, making strong, and of care, superintendence. But the Welsh has the sense of driving, a modified application of extending, and this gives the sense of separation and purification. In its application to hay, timber, provisions, &c., the sense may be to make right, as in other cases; but of this I am not confident.]

1. A healing; the act of healing; restoration to health from disease, and to soundness from a wound. We say, a medicine will effect a cure.
2. Remedy for disease; restorative; that which heals. Colds, hunger, prisons, ills without a cure. – Dryden.
3. The employment of a curate; the care of souls; spiritual charge.

CURE, v.t. [L. curo. See the Noun.]

1. To heal, as a person diseased or a wounded limb; to restore to health, as the body, or to soundness, as a limb. The child was cured from that very hour. Matth. xvii.
2. To subdue, remove, destroy or put an end to; to heal, as a disease. Christ gave his disciples power to cure diseases. Luke ix. When the person and the disease are both mentioned, cure is followed by of before the disease. The physician cured the man of his fever.
3. To remedy; to remove an evil, and restore to a good state. Patience will alleviate calamities, which it can not cure.
4. To dry; to prepare for preservation; as, to cure hay; or to prepare by salt, or in any manner, so as to prevent speedy putrefaction; as, to cure fish or beef.