Curate
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An assistant rector or vicar.
- 2 An oxyanion of curium; any salt containing such an anion.
- 3 a person authorized to conduct religious worship wordnet
- 4 A parish priest.
- 5 An assistant barman. Ireland
"‘Here, Pat, give us a g.p., like a good fellow.’ The curate brought him a glass of plain porter. The man drank it at a gulp and asked for a caraway seed. He put his penny on the counter and, leaving the curate to grope for it in the gloom, retreated out of the snug as furtively as he had entered it."
- 1 To act as a curator for. transitive
"She curated the traveling exhibition."
- 2 To apply selectivity and taste to, as a collection of fashion items or web pages. broadly, transitive
"What I love about DVRs is that they really allow you to curate your experience of television."
- 3 To work or act as a curator. intransitive
"Not only does he curate for the museum, he manages the office and fund-raises."
Example
More examples"Any more breakage and you'll never curate a blown glass exhibit in this town again!"
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin cūrātus (“one who has been curated, a curate”), a substantivation of the perfect passive participle of cūrō. Doublet of curato and curé. Equivalent to cure + -ate (noun-forming suffix).
Back-formation from curator on the basis of -ate (verb-forming suffix).
From cur(ium) + -ate.
Related phrases
More for "curate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.