Kill or cure
Meaning
A drastic solution or treatment that will either completely resolve a problem or cause utter failure.
Origin
In the tumultuous landscape of 17th-century medicine, where understanding of the human body was nascent and remedies often rudimentary, practitioners faced a stark choice. Lacking sophisticated diagnostics, physicians would sometimes resort to aggressive treatments—potent purges, radical bloodletting, or dangerous chemical compounds like mercury. These interventions were not gentle; they were powerful, double-edged swords. They either violently expelled the perceived illness and restored health, or they overwhelmed the weakened patient, accelerating their demise. This stark reality, the high-stakes gamble inherent in the healing arts, birthed the idiom 'kill or cure,' perfectly encapsulating the desperate measures and uncertain outcomes of an era where medicine was often a brutal, binary struggle for survival.
Examples
- His desperate plan to save the failing company was a classic kill or cure approach, risky but potentially revolutionary.
- After trying every gentle remedy, the doctor suggested a kill or cure treatment for the stubborn illness, knowing it was the last resort.