cu·rate¹ / ˈkyoŏrət; -ˌrāt/ • n. (also assistant curate) a member of the clergy engaged as assistant to a vicar, rector, or parish priest. ∎ archaic a minister with pastoral responsibility.cu·rate² / ˈkyoŏˌrāt/ • v. [tr.] select, organize, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition).DERIVATIVES: cu·ra·tion / kyəˈrāshən/ n.

curate a member of the clergy engaged as assistant to a vicar, rector, or parish priest. The word is recorded from Middle English, and comes from medieval Latin curatus, from Latin cura ‘care’.
curate's comfort a cake-stand with two or more tiers.
curate's egg a thing that is partly good and partly bad, from a cartoon in Punch (1895) depicting a meek curate who, given a stale egg at the bishop's table, assures his host that ‘parts of it are excellent’.

curate (arch.) one having the cure of souls XIV; assistant to a parish priest XVI. — medL. cūrātus, f. cūra CURE; see -ATE 1.
Hence curacy XVII.

curate (Lat. cura charge) Clergyman who assists the incumbent priest of a parish in the performance of his duties. The term was originally used to denote a priest who had the charge of a parish.

Curate. A Christian clergyman who has the charge (‘cure’) of a parish.