Nostrum /(-trŭm)/

Nos·trum

Nostrum

n.

pl. Nostrums ((-trŭmz))

  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 or proposal likely to prove popular with voters.