Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Curl

Curl

(kûrl)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Curled
(kûrld)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Curling
.]
[Akin to D.
krullen
, Dan.
krölle
, dial. Sw.
krulla
to curl, crisp; possibly akin to E.
crook
. Cf.
Curl
,
Noun.
,
Cruller
.]
1.
To twist or form into ringlets; to crisp, as the hair.
But
curl
their locks with bodkins and with braid.
Cascoigne.
2.
To twist or make onto coils, as a serpent’s body.
Of his tortuous train,
Curled
many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve.
Milton.
3.
To deck with, or as with, curls; to ornament.
Thicker than the snaky locks
That
curled
Megæra.
Milton.
Curling
with metaphors a plain intention.
Herbert.
4.
To raise in waves or undulations; to ripple.
Seas would be pools without the brushing air
To
curl
the waves.
Dryden.
5.
(Hat Making)
To shape (the brim) into a curve.

Curl

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To contract or bend into curls or ringlets, as hair; to grow in curls or spirals, as a vine; to be crinkled or contorted; to have a curly appearance;
as, leaves lie
curled
on the ground
.
Thou seest it [hair] will not
curl
by nature.
Shakespeare
2.
To move in curves, spirals, or undulations; to contract in curving outlines; to bend in a curved form; to make a curl or curls.
Cirling billows.”
Dryden.
Then round her slender waist he
curled
.
Dryden.
Curling
smokes from village tops are seen.
Pope.
Gayly
curl
the waves before each dashing prow.
Byron.
He smiled a king of sickly smile, and
curled
up on the floor.
Bret Harte.
3.
To play at the game called curling.
[Scot.]

Curl

(kûrl)
,
Noun.
[Akin to D.
krul
, Dan.
krölle
. See
Curl
,
Verb.
]
1.
A ringlet, especially of hair; anything of a spiral or winding form.
Under a coronet, his flowing hair
In
curls
on either cheek played.
Milton.
2.
An undulating or waving line or streak in any substance, as wood, glass, etc.; flexure; sinuosity.
If the glass of the prisms . . . be without those numberless waves or
curls
which usually arise from the sand holes.
Sir I. Newton.
3.
A disease in potatoes, in which the leaves, at their first appearance, seem curled and shrunken.
Blue curls
.
(Bot.)
See under
Blue
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Curl

CURL

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To turn, bend or form into ringlets; to crisp; as the hair.
2.
To writhe; to twist; to coil; as a serpent.
3.
To dress with curls.
The snaky locks that curled Megaera.
4.
To raise in waves or undulations; to ripple.
Seas would be pools, without the brushing air to curl the waves.

CURL

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To bend in contraction; to shrink into ringlets.
2.
To rise in waves or undulation; to ripple; and particularly, to roll over at the summit; as a curling wave.
3.
To rise in a winding current, and to roll over at the ends; as curling smoke.
4.
To writhe; to twist itself.
Then round her slender waist he curled.
5.
To shrink; to shrink back; to bend and sink. He curled down into a corner.

CURL

,
Noun.
1.
A ringlet of hair, or any thing of a like form.
2.
Undulation; a waving; sinuosity; flexure.
3.
A winding int he grain of wood.

Definition 2024


curl

curl

English

Noun

curl (plural curls)

  1. A piece or lock of curling hair; a ringlet.
    • 1866, Louisa May Alcott, Behind A Mask or, A Woman's Power, chapter 7:
      [] she took it down, looked long and fondly at it, then, shaking her curls about her face, as if to hide the act, pressed it to her lips and seemed to weep over it in an uncontrollable paroxysm of tender grief.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter 1, in The Purchase Price:
      Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. [] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess:
      The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.
  2. A curved stroke or shape.
    • 1995, John Curtis, Julian Reade, & Dominique Collon, Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum‎, page 184:
      [] the backs of their necks and their forelegs are decorated with curls and their necks and bodies are covered with fine, undulating lines.
  3. A spin making the trajectory of an object curve.
    • 1909, Harold Horsfall Hilton, The Six Handicap Golfer's Companion, page 38:
      It is possible to use the wind which blows from the left to the right by playing well into the wind with the slightest bit of curl on the ball []
  4. (curling) Movement of a moving rock away from a straight line.
  5. (weightlifting) Any exercise performed by bending the arm, wrist, or leg on the exertion against resistance, especially those that train the biceps.
    • 2007 (Jan/Feb), Jon Crosby, "Your Winter Muscle Makeover", Men's Health, page 54:
      Now do a curl and an overhead press, keeping your palms facing in.
  6. (calculus) The vector field denoting the rotationality of a given vector field.
    • 1995, Erich Prisner, Graph dynamics:
      In 2D, when Q is a polygonal domain, the singularities of Type (2) disappear because ψ is the scalar curl of u and is such that its vectorial curl is zero.
    The curl of the vector field is the vector field .
  7. (calculus, proper noun) The vector operator, denoted or , that generates this field.
  8. (agriculture) Any of various diseases of plants causing the leaves or shoots to curl up; often specifically the potato curl.
    • 1840, "Farmers' Department", The Family Magazine, volume 1, page 227:
      These potatoes, however, planted the next year, have a fair yield, untouched by the curl.
  9. (music, chiefly lutherie) The contrasting light and dark figure seen in wood used for stringed instrument making; the flame.
    The one-piece back is of a medium curl.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

curl (third-person singular simple present curls, present participle curling, simple past and past participle curled)

  1. (transitive) To cause to move in a curve.
    • 1998, Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch‎, p.70:
      He picked the ball up about forty yards out on the left wing, left a trail of Arsenal defenders in his wake, and curled the ball round Geoff Barnett as he came right out into the far corner.
    • 2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, Liverpool 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC:
      Campbell should have scored but missed with a header from four yards at the far post before Taylor-Fletcher came close to adding a second when he curled an effort over the stranded Reina, who should have been punished for a poor clearance.
  2. (transitive) To make into a curl or spiral.
    • 2004, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Twelve Times Blessed‎, p.249:
      She curls her spine; she wedges a pillow between her knees.
  3. (intransitive) To assume the shape of a curl or spiral.
    • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Ch.XXXI:
      It seemed to me that Mr. St. John's under lip protruded, and his upper lip curled a moment.
  4. (intransitive) To move in curves.
    • 1977, Scott O'Dell, Carlota‎, p.1:
      Clouds curled down from the mountains.
    • 2007, John Coyne, The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan‎, p.97:
      The ball curled to a stop within six inches of the hole.
  5. (intransitive, curling) To take part in the sport of curling.
    I curl at my local club every weekend.
  6. (transitive, weightlifting) To exercise by bending the arm, wrist, or leg on the exertion against resistance, especially of the biceps.
    • 2008, Joseph Lee Klapper, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Boosting Your Metabolism‎, p.119:
      When curling the weight, bring the barbell up toward the chin, then return it to its starting position. Keep your elbows and upper arms as immobile as possible to isolate the biceps.
  7. To twist or form (the hair, etc.) into ringlets.
    • (Can we date this quote?) George Gascoigne
      Curl their locks with bodkins and with braid.
    • 1977, Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, Part II, chapter4:
      There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs; [].
  8. To deck with, or as if with, curls; to ornament.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      Thicker than the snaky locks / That curled Megaera.
    • (Can we date this quote?) George Herbert
      Curling with metaphors a plain intention.
  9. To raise in waves or undulations; to ripple.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden
      Seas would be pools without the brushing air / To curl the waves.
  10. (hat-making) To shape (the brim of a hat) into a curve.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also