remedy

Pluralremedies

Formsremedies, remedying, remedied

1. 1
   nouncountable

   Something that corrects, counteracts, or sets right a fault or problem.

   Like an antidote that cancels out a poison.

   A long walk is his favorite remedy for a stressful day.

   Better lighting proved an effective remedy for the office's gloomy mood.

   Similarcure, solution, antidote, answer, fix

   Note

   A medical word stretched to cover any fault. Latin remedium joins re- "again" with mederi "to heal", and here the healing is applied to a gloomy office or a stressful day rather than a body, with the medical meaning closest to the root. It normally takes for: a remedy for delay. Remeid is a doublet, a second English descendant of the same Latin word.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A medicine, application, or treatment that relieves the symptoms of or cures a disease.

   Many herbal remedies have been used for centuries to treat minor ailments.

   There is still no reliable remedy for the common cold.

   Similarcure, treatment, medicine, medication

   Note

   Older English liked to call a cure a sovereign remedy, meaning a supreme one, and could use against where we now say for. Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1638) calls beauty "a sovereign remedy against fear, grief, and all melancholy fits." Modern usage keeps for and drops sovereign: a remedy for the common cold.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To correct or counteract something wrong, or to provide a cure for it.

   The company moved quickly to remedy the safety defects in its cars.

   Adding more staff remedied the long wait times at the clinic.

   Similarcorrect, rectify, fix, resolve, cure

   Oppositeworsen, aggravate, exacerbate

   Note

   The verb takes the problem as its object: you remedy a defect, a shortage, a delay. David Hume writes in 1748 that geometry is never "able to remedy this defect." The spelling follows the usual pattern for verbs ending in -y. Remedies and remedied change y to ie, while remedying keeps the y before -ing.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   In law, a course of action the courts offer for restoring a right, or for preventing a wrong or securing redress for it.

   The plaintiff sought a remedy in the form of monetary damages.

   When a contract is breached, several remedies may be available to the injured party.

   Similarredress, relief, recourse

   Note

   Law uses the word for what a court can actually do about a wrong, as distinct from the right itself. Damages, injunctions, restitution and specific performance are all remedies, which is why the plural is so common: several remedies may be open to one injured party. A plaintiff seeks a remedy, and a court grants or refuses one.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The permitted tolerance or deviation in the fineness or weight of gold and other coins during minting.

   Coins that fell outside the remedy were rejected by the assay office.

   The royal mint allowed a small remedy in the weight of each sovereign.

   Similartolerance, allowance

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