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Webster 1913 Edition


Sinecure

Siˊne-cure

,
Noun.
[L.
sine
without +
cura
care, LL., a cure. See
Cure
.]
1.
An ecclesiastical benefice without the care of souls.
Ayliffe.
2.
Any office or position which requires or involves little or no responsibility, labor, or active service.
A lucrative
sinecure
in the Excise.
Macaulay.

Si′ne-cure

,
Verb.
T.
To put or place in a sinecure.

Webster 1828 Edition


Sinecure

SI'NECURE

,
Noun.
[L. sine, without, and cura, cure, care.] An office which has revenue without employment; in church affairs, a benefice without cure of souls. [This is the original and proper sense of the word.] Sine die, [L. without day.] An adjournment sine die is and adjournment without fixing the time of resuming business. When a defendant is suffered to go sine die, he is dismissed the court.

Definition 2024


sinecure

sinecure

See also: sinécure

English

Noun

sinecure (plural sinecures)

  1. A position that requires no work but still gives an ample payment; a cushy job.
    • 1913, George Bernard Shaw, Appendix”, in Pygmalion:
      His prospects consisted of a hope that if he kept up appearances somebody would do something for him. The something appeared vaguely to his imagination as a private secretaryship or a sinecure of some sort.
    • 2009, Michael O'Connor, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 25:
      In the ADF, while the numbers vary between the individual services and the reserves, employment is no comfortable sinecure for any personnel and thus does not appeal to many people, male or female, especially under current pay scales.
    • 2010, Mungo MacCallum, The Monthly, April 2010, Issue 55, The Monthly Ptd Ltd, page 28:
      However, by the time of World War II (if not before), politics, at least in the federal sphere, was no longer regarded as sinecure for well-intentioned part-timers.
    • Macaulay
      A lucrative sinecure in the Excise.
  2. An ecclesiastical benefice without the care of souls.
    • Ayliffe, Universal Dictionary of Science, page 402
      A sinecure is a benefice without cure of souls.

Hypernyms

  • (a position that requires no work but still gives a payment): position

Related terms

Translations

Verb

sinecure (third-person singular simple present sinecures, present participle sinecuring, simple past and past participle sinecured)

  1. (transitive) To put or place in a sinecure.

Anagrams


Danish

Etymology

From French sinécure, from Latin sine (without) + cūra (care).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sinəkyːrə/, [sinəˈkʰyːɐ]

Noun

sinecure c (singular definite sinecuren, plural indefinite sinecurer)

  1. (rare) sinecure (a position that requires no work but still gives a payment)

Inflection