Dictionary entry

Nostrum

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Nos″trum (–trŭm), n.; pl.Nostrums (–trŭmz). [Neut. sing. of L. noster ours, fr. nos we. See Us.]

1. A medicine, the ingredients of which are kept secret for the purpose of restricting the profits of sale to the inventor or proprietor; a quack medicine.

2. Any scheme or device proposed by a quack.

The incentives of agitators, the arts of impostors and the nostrums of quacks. Brougham.