nostrum Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases; once sought by the alchemists
    catholicon; cure-all; panacea.
  2. noun patent medicine whose efficacy is questionable

WordNet

Nos"trum noun
Etymology
Neut. sing. of L. noster ours, fr. nos we. See Us.
Wordforms
plural Nostrums
Definitions
  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.
    3. any scheme asserted to solve a problem, but with no objective basis for belief in its effectiveness; esp., in politics, a scheme likely to prove popular with voters.

Webster 1913