Nos"trum (?) n.; pl. Nostrums (#). [Neut. sing. of L. noster ours, fr. nos we. See Us.]
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 likely to prove popular with voters. -->
© Webster 1913.