incurable, a. (n.)
(ɪnˈkjʊərəb(ə)l)
[a. OF. incurable (13–14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. incūrābilis, f. in- (in-3) + cūrābilis curable.]
1. That cannot be cured; incapable of being healed by medicine or medical skill.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter Cant. 520 Venym of snakis incurabil. 1382 Wyclif 2 Macc. ix. 5 But the Lord God of Yrael..smote hym with a wound incurable. c 1386 Chaucer Monk's T. 610 God..him..smoot With invisible wounde, ay incurable. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. cci. 183 The mormal..be hald Incurable. 1533 More Apol. xii. Wks. 870/2 For healthe of the whole bodye, cutte and cast of the incurable cancred partes therefro. 1715 Nelson Addr. Pers. Qual. 210 We have not, for instance, a Hospital for the Incurable. 1846 Trench Mirac. x. (1862) 216 The disease..was incurable by the art and skill of man. |
2. transf. and fig. Not admitting of remedy, correction, or reformation.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 13 How þat lewed men ben ladde..Þorugh vnkonnynge curatoures to incurable peynes. 1560 Jewel Serm. bef. Queen, Ps. lxix. 9, That yet before the faulte be incurable, there may be some redresse. 1595 Shakes. John v. i. 16 Present medcine must be ministred, Or ouerthrow incureable ensues. 1665 Glanvill Def. Van. Dogm. 82 The Transcripts were full of errour and incurable defects. 1725 Berkeley Propos. Suppl. Ch. Plant. Wks. III. 226 Ignorance is not so incurable as error. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. IV. 386 The faults of James's head and heart were incurable. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. x. 203 Wasps are incurable drunkards. |
B. n. A person suffering from an incurable disease. Usually in pl.
| 1652 Howell tr. Giraffi's Rev. Naples ii. 131 They burnt the Monastery of Santa Maria, together with the Hospital of the Incurables. a 1745 Swift (J.), If idiots and lunaticks cannot be found, incurables may be taken into the hospital. 1766 Chesterfield Lett. 1 Aug. (1774) IV. 245 To withdraw in the fulness of his powers..from the House of Commons..and to go into that Hospital of Incurables, the House of Lords. 1778 Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2) s.v. Southwark, This hospital..is said to be for incurables, i.e. for such as are turned out of other hospitals for any ailments that are incurable (except lunacy). 1816 Southey in Q. Rev. XIV. 353 To leave a country which, like a lunatic hospital, contained only fools and incurables. |