Curing

How to spell curing

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce curing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does curing mean?

1. verbRestoring someone to health or eliminating a disease or problem.
2. verbPreserving meat or fish by salting, smoking, or drying.
3. verbAllowing a material such as concrete, glue, or resin to set and harden fully.

Curing in a sentence

• The new drug shows real promise in curing the infection.

• Curing bacon at home requires a careful balance of salt and time.

• The freshly poured concrete needs several days of curing before any load is added.

• Curing a stubborn cold often takes more rest than medicine.

• The butcher explained that curing ham can take several weeks.

• Curing the epoxy under a heat lamp speeds up the bonding process.

Where does curing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the Latin noun cura, which meant 'care, attention, or concern', the same root that gives us 'curator' (one who takes care of a collection) and 'manicure' (care of the hands). The verb 'cure' arrived in English in the 1200s through Old French curer, carrying the sense of taking medical care of someone and so restoring them to health. From that healing sense the meaning broadened: to 'cure' food was to take such careful treatment with salt, smoke, or drying that it would keep without spoiling, and to 'cure' a material like concrete or resin meant tending it through the process by which it sets and hardens. The spelling keeps the single Latin r of cura, so the form is simply cure plus -ing, with the silent e dropped before the suffix, which is the small trap writers should watch.

How the word is built

• cur- (from Latin cura: care, attention)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)