slang. [app. an abbreviation of curious or curiosity: cf. curio.
It appears to have obtained vogue largely from a Music Hall song with the chorus ‘The cure, the cure, the perfect cure’ (with play on CURE sb.1), popular in 1862.]
An odd or eccentric person; a funny fellow.
1856. Punch, XXXI. 201 (Farmer). Punch has no mission to repeat The Slang he hears along the street … But as it ’s likely to endure, He asks a question, ‘What ’s a cure?’
1889. Monthly Packet, Christmas No., Abigail, v. 108. ‘You are a cure of a girl!’ was Mrs. Bowden’s neat way of expressing her surprise.
