Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A dark resinous extract obtained from several tropical American woody plants, especially Chondrodendron tomentosum or certain species of Strychnos, used as an arrow poison by some Indian peoples of South America.
- noun Any of several purified preparations of such an extract, used formerly as a drug to relax skeletal muscles during anesthesia.
- noun The drug tubocurarine.
- noun Any of the plants that yield curare.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
curari .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A black resinoid extract prepared by the South American Indians from the bark of several species of Strychnos (
Strychnos toxifera , etc.). It sometimes has little effect when taken internally, but is quickly fatal when introduced into the blood, and used by the Indians as an arrow poison.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A plant, Strychnos toxifera, known for the toxin it produces.
- noun A substance containing the alkaloid D-tubocurarine, used historically as a muscle
relaxant during surgery.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a toxic alkaloid found in certain tropical South American trees that is a powerful relaxant for striated muscles
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In his textbook on physiology, Professor Holmgren calls curare the "most cruel of poisons," because an animal under its influence "it changes instantly into a living corpse which hears and sees, and knows everything, but is unable to move a single muscle; and under its influence no creature can give the faintest indication of its hopeless condition."
An Ethical Problem Or, Sidelights upon Scientific Experimentation on Man and Animals Albert Leffingwell 1880
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Amongst the most curious of the discoveries made by Humboldt, we must mention that of the "curare," the virulent poison which he saw manufactured by the Catarapeni and Maquiritare Indians, and a specimen of which he sent to the Institute with the "dapiche," a variety of
Celebrated Travels and Travellers Part 2. The Great Navigators of the Eighteenth Century Jules Verne 1866
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Such is the quickness with which the "curare" does its work!
Popular Adventure Tales Mayne Reid 1850
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Such is the quickness with which the "curare" does its work!
The Forest Exiles The Perils of a Peruvian Family in the Wilds of the Amazon Mayne Reid 1850
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a single engagement seventy of Hojeda's companions fell under the arrows of the savages, fearful weapons steeped in "curare," so fatal
Celebrated Travels and Travellers Part I. The Exploration of the World Jules Verne 1866
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It contained a secret compartment with a needle and enough curare to kill a captured pilot instantly.
A Spy's Ill-Fated Flight From Pakistan Mark Yost 2011
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No curare lipstick touched the president, even if Joe Biden seemed the closest to the blond ambition danger.
When's A Crash Like A Train Wreck? When We Can't Look Away... 2010
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No curare lipstick touched the president, even if Joe Biden seemed the closest to the blond ambition danger.
Phil Bronstein: When's A Crash Like A Train Wreck? When We Can't Look Away... 2010
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I used no anesthetic other than the curare,which was mostly a muscle relaxant.
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Hammett and his followers, Chandler wrote, "gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not with hand-wrought duelling pistols, curare, and tropical fish."
Review of "Think of a Number," a thriller by John Verdon Daniel Stashower 2010
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