- a medicine sold with false or exaggerated claims and with no demonstrable value; quack medicine.
- a pet scheme or remedy, especially for social or political ills; panacea: The party was pushing the nostrum of corporate tax reduction, as if that would undo decades of industrial job loss.
- a medicine made by the person who recommends it.
- a patent medicine.
- a patent or quack medicine
- a favourite remedy, as for political or social problems
