Also curara, -ri. [A corruption of the native name (wurā·li or wurā·ri) also written wourali, woorari, ourali, ourari, wourara, etc., in the lang. of the Macusi Indians of Guiana, a Carib dialect. The consonant of the last syllable varies between l and r. In F. curare. (The initial c is said to represent a click or catch in the native pronunciation.) See OURALI, WOURALI.]
A blackish-brown resinous bitter substance, obtained as an extract from Strychnos toxifera, and other plants of tropical South America; used by the Indians to poison their arrows.
When introduced into the blood it acts as a powerful poison, arresting the action of the motor nerves; used largely in physiological experiments.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer., IV. (1778), I. 328. A poison in which they dip the arrows employed in hunting … the chief ingredient in which is the juice extracted from the root of the curare, a species of withe.
1836. Macgillivray, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., xix. 274. The curare … like the venom of serpents … only acts when introduced directly into the blood.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 186. Animals quieted by curari.
1883. F. Power Cobbe, in Contemp. Rev., June, 793. A moral curare,… paralyzing will and emotion.
