medicine

[ med-uh-sinor, especially British, med-suhn ]

noun

1. any substance or substances used in treating disease or illness; medicament; remedy.

   Synonyms: physic, pharmaceutical, drug, medication

2. the art or science of restoring or preserving health or due physical condition, as by means of drugs, surgical operations or appliances, or manipulations: often divided into medicine proper, surgery, and obstetrics.
3. the art or science of treating disease with drugs or curative substances, as distinguished from surgery and obstetrics.
4. the medical profession.
5. (among North American Indians) any object or practice regarded as having magical powers.

verb (used with object)

, med·i·cined, med·i·cin·ing.

1. to administer medicine to.

medicine

/ ˈmɛdsɪn; ˈmɛdɪsɪn /

noun

1. any drug or remedy for use in treating, preventing, or alleviating the symptoms of disease
2. the science of preventing, diagnosing, alleviating, or curing disease
3. any nonsurgical branch of medical science
4. the practice or profession of medicine Aesculapianiatric

   he's in medicine

5. something regarded by primitive people as having magical or remedial properties
6. take one's medicine
   to accept a deserved punishment
7. a taste of one's own medicine or a dose of one's own medicine
   an unpleasant experience in retaliation for and by similar methods to an unkind or aggressive act

medicine

/ mĕd′ĭ-sĭn /

1. The scientific study or practice of diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases or disorders of the body or mind of a person or animal.
2. An agent, such as a drug, used to treat disease or injury.

Other Words From

• anti·medi·cine adjective
• super·medi·cine noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of medicine¹

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English medicin, from Latin medicīna (ars) “healing (art),” feminine of medicīnus “pertaining to a physician,” from medic(us) “physician” ( medical ) + -īnus -ine ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of medicine¹

C13: via Old French from Latin medicīna ( ars ) (art of) healing, from medicus doctor, from medērī to heal

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. give someone a dose / taste of his / her own medicine, to repay or punish a person for an injury by use of the offender's own methods.
2. take one's medicine, to undergo or accept punishment, especially deserved punishment:

   He took his medicine like a man.

More idioms and phrases containing medicine

see dose of one's own medicine ; take one's medicine .

Example Sentences

Silicon Valley’s hunger for H-1B talent may routinely make headlines, but tech isn’t doling out the biggest paycheques for those on the long-term work visa—medicine is.

From Quartz

I am an infectious disease doctor and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

From No Straight News

Neandertals used medicine and tools just as humans of the time did.

From Science News For Students

Brain death has been a recognized concept in medicine for decades.

From Science News

As an example, most people realize that while jacking the price of a medicine up during a health crisis would boost profits, it would also be morally indefensible.

From Singularity Hub 

The trials produced positive results, published in The New England Journal of Medicine in November.

From The Daily Beast

If laughter is the best medicine, The Comeback made you feel enough pain to need a dose—and then it delivered in spades.

From The Daily Beast

The religion shaped all facets of life: art, medicine, literature, and even dynastic politics.

From The Daily Beast

Certain trades, such as medicine or law, are eternally well-respected.

From The Daily Beast

In this understanding, art is like a medicine or a toxin, transforming its audience for good or ill.

From The Daily Beast

Insult and outrage seemed to have given that bodily vigour to Ripperda, which medicine and surgery had taken no pains to restore.

From Project Gutenberg

Barclay, in his tract on "The Vertues of Tobacco," recommends its use as a medicine.

From Project Gutenberg

We knew then that his medicine was bad medicine, otherwise the white baas without the pictures could not have killed him.

From Project Gutenberg

And she did go; the doctor with great attention sending in half a dozen of medicine, to be drunk upon the road.

From Project Gutenberg

William Read died; originally a cobbler, became a mountebank, and practiced medicine by the light of nature!

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• antibiotic
• cure
• drug
• medication
• pharmaceutical
• pill
• prescription
• remedy