Cur

//kɜː// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A contemptible or inferior dog. dated, humorous

    "A fals double tunge is more fiers and fell Then Cerberus the cur couching in the kenel of hel; Wherof hereafter, I thinke for to write,"

  2. 2
    an inferior dog or one of mixed breed wordnet
  3. 3
    A detestable person. dated, humorous

    "This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd, and I have not the power to muzzle him."

  4. 4
    a cowardly or contemptible person wordnet
  5. 5
    A sheepdog or watchdog. archaic, dialectal

    "Then send our Curs to gather up the Sheep"

Synonyms

All synonyms
dogmongrelmuttanimalbeastbounder

Example

More examples

"You're a silly scaremonger, spreading a yarn like this, and a cur to boot for deserting your partner!"

Etymology

From Middle English curre (“watchdog, small hunting dog, mongrel, mutt”), perhaps of Middle Low German or North Germanic origin. Compare Middle Dutch corre (“domestic dog, yard dog, watch-dog”), dialectal Dutch korre (“dog, yard dog”), dialectal Swedish kurre (“a dog”). Compare also Old Norse kurra (“to growl; grumble”), Middle Low German kurren, korren (“to growl”). Compare also Middle Dutch querie (“female dog, bitch”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.