Cure vs. Fix — What's the Difference?

A cure is a substance or procedure that ends a medical condition, such as a medication, a surgical operation, a change in lifestyle or even a philosophical mindset that helps end a person's sufferings; or the state of being healed, or cured. The medical condition could be a disease, mental illness, genetic disorder, or simply a condition a person considers socially undesirable, such as baldness or lack of breast tissue.

To correct or set right; adjust

Relieve (a person or animal) of the symptoms of a disease or condition

To restore to proper condition or working order; repair

Preserve (meat, fish, tobacco, or an animal skin) by salting, drying, or smoking

To make ready for a specific purpose, as by altering or combining elements; prepare

A parish priest in a French-speaking country.

To spay or castrate (an animal).

A drug or course of medical treatment used to restore health

To influence the outcome or actions of (something) by improper or unlawful means

Restoration of health; recovery from disease

(Informal) To take revenge upon (someone); get even with.

Something that corrects or relieves a harmful or disturbing situation

To place securely; make stable or firm

(Ecclesiastical) Spiritual charge or care, as of a priest for a congregation.

To secure to another; attach

The office or duties of a curate.

To put into a stable or unalterable form

The act or process of preserving a product.

To make (a chemical substance) nonvolatile or solid.

A parish priest, especially in a French-speaking community.

(Biology) To convert (nitrogen or carbon) into stable, biologically assimilable compounds.

To cause to be free of a disease or unhealthy condition

To kill and preserve (a specimen) intact for microscopic study.

To cause to be free of, to lose interest in, or to stop doing something

To prevent discoloration of (a photographic image) by washing or coating with a chemical preservative.

To eliminate (a disease, for example) from the body by medical or other treatment; cause recovery from

To direct steadily

To remove or remedy (something harmful or disturbing)

To capture or hold

To preserve (meat, for example), as by salting, smoking, or aging.

To set or place definitely; establish

To prepare, preserve, or finish (a substance) by a chemical or physical process.

To determine with accuracy; ascertain

To vulcanize (rubber).

To agree on; arrange

To effect a cure or recovery

To assign; attribute

To be prepared, preserved, or finished by a chemical or physical process

(Computers) To convert (data) from floating-point notation to fixed-point notation.

A method, device or medication that restores good health.

To direct one's efforts or attention; concentrate

Act of healing or state of being healed; restoration to health after a disease, or to soundness after injury.

To become stable or firm; harden

(figurative) A solution to a problem.

Chiefly Southern US To be on the verge of; to be making preparations for. Used in progressive tenses with the infinitive

A process of preservation, as by smoking.

The act of adjusting, correcting, or repairing.

A process of solidification or gelling.

(Informal) Something that repairs or restores; a solution

(engineering) A process whereby a material is caused to form permanent molecular linkages by exposure to chemicals, heat, pressure and/or weathering.

The position, as of a ship or aircraft, determined by visual observations with the aid of equipment.

(obsolete) Care, heed, or attention.

A clear determination or understanding

Spiritual charge; care of soul; the office of a parish priest or of a curate.

An instance of arranging a special consideration, such as an exemption from a requirement, or an improper or illegal outcome, especially by means of bribery.

That which is committed to the charge of a parish priest or of a curate.

A difficult or embarrassing situation; a predicament

(transitive) To restore to health.

(Slang) An amount or dose of something craved, especially an intravenous injection of a narcotic.

(transitive) To bring (a disease or its bad effects) to an end.

To pierce; now generally replaced by transfix.

(transitive) To cause to be rid of (a defect).

(Of a piercing look) to direct at someone.

(transitive) To prepare or alter especially by chemical or physical processing for keeping or use.

(transitive) To attach; to affix; to hold in place or at a particular time.

To preserve (food), typically by salting. is this sense distinct from the preceding one? another example might be useful

To focus or determine (oneself, on a concept); to fixate.

(intransitive) To bring about a cure of any kind.

To prevent enemy pawns from advancing by directly opposing the most advanced one with one of one's own pawns so as to threaten to capture any advancing backward pawns.

(intransitive) To be undergoing a chemical or physical process for preservation or use.

(transitive) To mend, to repair.

(intransitive) To solidify or gel.

To prepare (food or drink).

To become healed.

(transitive) To make (a contest, vote, or gamble) unfair; to privilege one contestant or a particular group of contestants, usually before the contest begins; to arrange immunity for defendants by tampering with the justice system via bribery or extortion.

(obsolete) To pay heed; to care; to give attention.

To surgically render an animal, especially a pet, infertile.

Care, heed, or attention.

To map a (point or subset) to itself.

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.

To take revenge on, to best; to serve justice on an assumed miscreant.

Medical or hygienic care; remedial treatment of disease; a method of medical treatment; as, to use the water cure.

(transitive) To render (a photographic impression) permanent by treating with such applications as will make it insensitive to the action of light.

Act of healing or state of being healed; restoration to health from disease, or to soundness after injury.

To convert into a stable or available form.

Means of the removal of disease or evil; that which heals; a remedy; a restorative.

(intransitive) To become fixed; to settle or remain permanently; to cease from wandering; to rest.

A curate; a pardon.

(intransitive) To become firm, so as to resist volatilization; to cease to flow or be fluid; to congeal; to become hard and malleable, as a metallic substance.

To heal; to restore to health, soundness, or sanity; to make well; - said of a patient.

A repair or corrective action.

To subdue or remove by remedial means; to remedy; to remove; to heal; - said of a malady.

A difficult situation; a quandary or dilemma; a predicament.

To set free from (something injurious or blameworthy), as from a bad habit.

(informal) A single dose of an addictive drug administered to a drug user.

To prepare for preservation or permanent keeping; to preserve, as by drying, salting, etc.; as, to cure beef or fish; to cure hay.

A prearrangement of the outcome of a supposedly competitive process, such as a sporting event, a game, an election, a trial, or a bid.

To pay heed; to care; to give attention.

A determination of location.

To restore health; to effect a cure.

(US) fettlings (mixture used to line a furnace)

To become healed.

Fixed; solidified.

A medicine or therapy that cures disease or relieve pain

To make firm, stable, or fast; to set or place permanently; to fasten immovably; to establish; to implant; to secure; to make definite.

Provide a cure for, make healthy again;

To hold steadily; to direct unwaveringly; to fasten, as the eye on an object, the attention on a speaker.

Prepare by drying, salting, or chemical processing in order to preserve;

To transfix; to pierce.

Make (substances) hard and improve their usability;

To render (an impression) permanent by treating with a developer to make it insensible to the action of light.

Be or become preserved;

To put in order; to arrange; to dispose of; to adjust; to set to rights; to set or place in the manner desired or most suitable; hence, to repair; as, to fix the clothes; to fix the furniture of a room.

To line the hearth of (a puddling furnace) with fettling.

To become fixed; to settle or remain permanently; to cease from wandering; to rest.

To become firm, so as to resist volatilization; to cease to flow or be fluid; to congeal; to become hard and malleable, as a metallic substance.

A position of difficulty or embarassment; predicament; dilemma.

Fettling.

Informal terms for a difficult situation;

Something craved, especially an intravenous injection of a narcotic drug;

The act of putting something in working order again

An exemption granted after influence (e.g., money) is brought to bear;

A determination of the location of something;

Restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken;

Cause to be firmly attached;

Decide upon or fix definitely;

Prepare for eating by applying heat;

Take vengeance on or get even;

Set or place definitely;

Kill, preserve, and harden (tissue) in order to prepare for microscopic study

Make fixed, stable or stationary;

Make infertile;

Put (something somewhere) firmly;

Make ready or suitable or equip in advance for a particular purpose or for some use, event, etc;