incurable
part of speech
adjective (incurable; incurably adv.)
meaning for a pupil
1) An incurable illness cannot be cured: doctors cannot make it go away, though they may help the person feel better. tree →
2) An incurable habit or quality is so strong that it will never change: an incurable optimist always hopes for the best. tree →
sense in the lessons
In health and science lessons and in family life: «an incurable disease», «sadly, the illness is incurable». Used kindly and humorously about character: «an incurable chatterbox», «an incurable romantic». It tells the reader something cannot be fixed or changed.
examples
- The vet said the old dog's illness was incurable. tree →
- Grandad has an incurable disease, but medicine helps him feel comfortable. tree →
- My sister is an incurable chatterbox. tree →
- Scientists are working hard to find treatments for incurable illnesses. tree →
- Dad is an incurable optimist about the weather. tree →
- Some illnesses that were once incurable can now be cured. tree →
- She was incurably curious about everything. tree →
- Meanwhile, the wound of Telephus proving incurable, he consulted an oracle, and the response was, that he alone who had inflicted the wound possessed the power of curing it. tree →
note
in- + cure + -able = cannot be cured. «Incurable» does not always mean deadly: many incurable conditions, like some allergies, can be managed for life. Opposite: curable.
In the corpora
- Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, so that it refuseth to be healed?
- For thus saith the LORD: Thy hurt is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.
- Why criest thou for thy hurt, that thy pain is incurable?
- Notwithstanding my right I am accounted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.'
- And after all this the LORD smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «incurable» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.