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Spiritual charge; care of soul; the office of a parish priest or of a curate; hence, that which is committed to the charge of a parish priest or of a curate; a curacy; as, to resign a cure; to obtain a cure. The appropriator was the incumbent parson, and had the cure of the souls of the parishioners. Spelman.…

st in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity. Shak. A screen accurately cut in tapiary work . . . with great curiosity. Evelin.

To determine the precise signification of; to fix the meaning of; to describe accurately; to explain; to expound or interpret; as, to define a word, a phrase, or a scientific term. They define virtue to be life ordered according to nature. Robynson (More's Utopia).

The act of defining; determination of the limits; as, the telescope accurate in definition.

ation by means of lines, as distinguished from representation by means of tints shades; accurate and minute representation, as distinguished from art that is careless of details, or subordinates them excessively.

ted; immethodical; aimless; as, desultory minds. Atterbury. He [Goldsmith] knew nothing accurately; his reading had been desultory. Macaulay.

The act, process, or result of any accurate measurement, as of length, volume, weight, intensify, etc.; as, the determination of the ohm or of the wave length of light; the determination of the salt in sea water, or the oxygen in the air.

often takes his dinner away from home, or in company. A brilliant diner-out, though but a curate. Byron.

To make a difference or distinction; to distinguish accurately; as, in judging of evidence, we should be careful to discriminate between probability and slight presumption.

atter, with the arguments and facts bearing upon it; elaborate essay; dissertation. For accurate research or grave disquisition he was not well qualified. Macaulay.

One who discerns accurately the difference of things; a nice or judicious observer. Dryden.

A stupid person; a fool; a blockhead. Some will say, our curate is naught, an ass-head, a dodipoll. Latimer.

To treat methodically with remedies, bandages, or curative appliances, as a sore, an ulcer, a wound, or a wounded or diseased part.

An instrument for accurately determining the ductility of metals.

usually of a doubleimage micrometer applied to the eye end of a telescope for measuring accurately the diameter of the image of the object glass there formed; which measurement, compared with the actual diameter of the glass, gives the magnifying power.

An interception or obscuration of the light of the sun, moon, or other luminous body, by the intervention of some other body, either between it and the eye, or between the luminous body and that illuminated by it. A lunar eclipse is caused by the moon passing through the earth's shadow; a solar eclipse, by the moon com…

An instrument for obtaining an accurate record of the time at which any observed phenomenon occurs, or of its duration. It has an electro-magnetic register connected with a clock. See Chronograph.

That refractive condition of the eye in which the rays of light are all brought accurately and without undue effort to a focus upon the retina; -- opposed to hypermetropia, myopia, an astigmatism.

Greeks, which consisted of quarter tones and major thirds, and was regarded as the most accurate.

restraint; a mistake; an oversight; also, transgression. [Obs.] I should have been more accurate, and corrected all those former escapes. Burton.