Curé Cu`ré" (ku`ra")
noun [ French, from Late Latin
curatus . See
Curate .]
A curate; a pardon.
Cureall Cure"·all` noun A remedy for all diseases, or for all ills; a panacea.
Cureless Cure"less adjective Incapable of cure; incurable. With patience undergo
A cureless ill, since fate will have it so.
Dryden.
Curer Cur"er noun 1. One who cures; a healer; a physician. 2. One who prepares beef, fish, etc., for preservation by drying, salting, smoking, etc.
Curette Cu·rette" (ku*rĕt")
noun [ French, from
curer to cleanse.]
(Medicine) A scoop or ring with either a blunt or a cutting edge, for removing substances from the walls of a cavity, as from the eye, ear, or womb.
Curette Cu·rette" transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Curetted ;
present participle & verbal noun Curetting .]
(Medicine) To scrape with a curette.
Curfew Cur"few (kûr"fū)
noun [ Middle English
courfew ,
curfu , from Old French
cuevrefu ,
covrefeu , French
couvre-feu ;
covrir to cover +
feu fire, from Latin
focus fireplace, hearth. See
Cover , and
Focus .]
1. The ringing of an evening bell, originally a signal to the inhabitants to cover fires, extinguish lights, and retire to rest, -- instituted by William the Conqueror; also, the bell itself. He begins at curfew , and walks till the first cock.
Shak.
The village curfew , as it tolled profound.
Campbell.
2. A utensil for covering the fire. [ Obsolete]
For pans, pots, curfews , counters and the like.
Bacon.
Curia Cu"ri·a noun ;
plural Curle (-...). [ Latin ]
1. (Rom. Antiq.) (a) One of the thirty parts into which the Roman people were divided by Romulus. (b) The place of assembly of one of these divisions. (c) The place where the meetings of the senate were held; the senate house. 2. (Middle Ages) The court of a sovereign or of a feudal lord; also; his residence or his household. Burrill. 3. (Law) Any court of justice. 4. The Roman See in its temporal aspects, including all the machinery of administration; -- called also curia Romana .
Curial Cu"ri·al adjective Of or pertaining to the papal curia; as, the curial etiquette of the Vatican. --
noun A member of a curia, esp. of that of Rome or the later Italian sovereignties.
Curialism Cu"ri·a·lism noun The view or doctrine of the ultramontane party in the Latin Church. Gladstone.
Curialist Cu"ri·a·list noun One who belongs to the ultramontane party in the Latin Church. Shipley.
Curialistic Cu`ri·a·lis"tic adjective [ Latin
curialis belonging to the imperial court, from
curia , Late Latin , also, counselors and retinue of a king.]
1. Pertaining to a court. 2. Relating or belonging to the ultramontane party in the Latin Church.
Curiality Cu`ri·al"i·ty noun [ Confer Late Latin
curialitas courtesy, from
curialis .]
The privileges, prerogatives, or retinue of a court. [ Obsolete]
Bacon.
Curiet Cu"ri·et noun A cuirass. [ Obsolete]
Spenser.
Curing Cur"ing (k?r"?ng),
p. adjective & verbal noun of Cure . Curing house ,
a building in which anything is cured; especially, in the West Indies, a building in which sugar is drained and dried.
Curio Cu"ri·o noun ;
plural Curios (-...z). [ Abbreviation of
curiosity .]
Any curiosity or article of virtu. The busy world, which does not hunt poets as collectors hunt for curios .
F. Harrison.
Curiologic Cu`ri·o·log"ic adjective [ Greek
kyriologiko`s speaking literally (applied to curiologic hieroglyphics);
ky`rios authoritative, proper +
lo`gos word, thought. Confer
Cyriologic .]
Pertaining to a rude kind of hieroglyphics, in which a thing is represented by its picture instead of by a symbol.
Curiosity Cu`ri·os"i·ty (kū`rĭ*ŏs"ĭ*tȳ)
noun ;
plural Curiosities (- tĭz). [ Middle English
curiouste ,
curiosite , Old French
curioseté ,
curiosité , French
curiosité , from Latin
curiositas , from
curiosus . See
Curious , and confer
Curio .]
1. The state or quality or being curious; nicety; accuracy; exactness; elaboration. [ Obsolete]
Bacon. When thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity .
Shak.
A screen accurately cut in tapiary work . . . with great curiosity .
Evelin.
2. Disposition to inquire, investigate, or seek after knowledge; a desire to gratify the mind with new information or objects of interest; inquisitiveness. Milton. 3. That which is curious, or fitted to excite or reward attention. We took a ramble together to see the curiosities of this great town.
Addison.
There hath been practiced also a curiosity , to set a tree upon the north side of a wall, and, at a little hieght, to draw it through the wall, etc.
Bacon.
Curioso Cu`ri·o"so noun ;
plural Curiosos (- z...z
or -s...z). [ Italian See
Curious .]
A virtuoso.
Curious Cu"ri·ous adjective [ Old French
curios ,
curius , French
curieux , Latin
curiosus careful, inquisitive, from
cura care. See
Cure .]
1. Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [ Obsolete]
Little curious in her clothes.
Fuller.
How shall we,
If he be curious , work upon his faith?
Beau. & Fl.
2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed; elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill. To devise curious works.
Ex. xxxv. 32
His body couched in a curious bed.
Shak.
3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; -- sometimes with after or of . It is a pity a gentleman so very curious after things that were elegant and beautiful should not have been as curious as to their origin, their uses, and their natural history.
Woodward.
4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise; inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or plain; strange; rare. "A
curious tale"
Shak. A multitude of curious analogies.
Macaulay.
Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.
E. A. Poe.
Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of learning or sciense often bring to light curious results.
C. J. Smith.
Curious arts ,
magic. [ Obsolete]
Many . . . which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them.
Acts xix. 19.
Syn. -- Inquisitive; prying. See
Inquisitive .
Curiously Cu"ri·ous·ly adverb In a curious manner.
Curiousness Cu"ri·ous·ness noun 1. Carefulness; painstaking. [ Obsolete]
My father's care
With curiousness and cost did train me up.
Massinger.
2. The state of being curious; exactness of workmanship; ingenuity of contrivance. 3. Inquisitiveness; curiosity.
Curl Curl (kûrl)
transitive verb [
imperfect & past participle Curled (kûrld);
present participle & verbal noun Curling .] [ Akin to Dutch
krullen , Danish
krölle , dial. Swedish
krulla to curl, crisp; possibly akin to English
crook . Confer
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 Curl intransitive verb 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.
Shak.
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 Curl (kûrl)
noun [ Akin to Dutch
krul , Danish
krölle . See
Curl ,
v. ]
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 .
(Botany) See under Blue .
Curled Curled (kûrld)
adjective Having curls; curly; sinuous; wavy; as, curled maple (maple having fibers which take a sinuous course). Curled hair (Com.) ,
the hair of the manes and tails of horses, prepared for upholstery purposes. McElrath.
Curledness Curl"ed·ness noun State of being curled; curliness.
Curler Curl"er (-ẽr)
noun 1. One who, or that which, curls. 2. A player at the game called curling . Burns.
Curlew Cur"lew (kûr"lū)
noun [ French
courlieu ,
corlieu ,
courlis ; perhaps of imitative origin, but confer Old French
corlieus courier; Latin
currere to run +
levis light.]
(Zoology) A wading bird of the genus Numenius , remarkable for its long, slender, curved bill. » The common European curlew is
N. arquatus . The long-billed (
N. longirostris ), the Hudsonian (
N. Hudsonicus ), and the Eskimo curlew (
N. borealis , are American species. The name is said to imitate the note of the European species.
Curlew Jack (Zoology) the whimbrel or lesser curlew. --
Curlew sandpiper (Zoology) ,
a sandpiper ( Tringa ferruginea, or subarquata ), common in Europe, rare in America, resembling a curlew in having a long, curved bill. See Illustation in Appendix.
Curliness Curl"i·ness noun State of being curly.
Curling Curl"ing noun 1. The act or state of that which curls; as, the curling of smoke when it rises; the curling of a ringlet; also, the act or process of one who curls something, as hair, or the brim of hats. 2. A scottish game in which heavy weights of stone or iron are propelled by hand over the ice towards a mark. Curling . . . is an amusement of the winter, and played on the ice, by sliding from one mark to another great stones of 40 to 70 pounds weight, of a hemispherical form, with an iron or wooden handle at top. The object of the player is to lay his stone as near to the mark as possible, to guard that of his partner, which has been well laid before, or to strike off that of his antagonist.
Pennant (Tour in Scotland. 1772).
Curling irons ,
Curling tong ,
an instrument for curling the hair; -- commonly heated when used.
Curlingly Curl"ing·ly adverb With a curl, or curls.
Curly Curl"y adjective Curling or tending to curl; having curls; full of ripples; crinkled.
Curlycue Curl"y·cue noun [ Confer French
caracole .]
Some thing curled or spiral,, as a flourish made with a pen on paper, or with skates on the ice; a trick; a frolicsome caper. [ Sometimes written
carlicue .] [ Colloq. U.S.]
To cut a curlycue ,
to make a flourish; to cut a caper. I gave a flourishing about the room and cut a curlycue with my right foot.
McClintock.
Curmudgeon Cur·mudg"eon noun [ Middle English
cornmudgin , where
-mudgin is probably from Old French
muchier ,
mucier , French
musser to hide; of uncertain origin; confer Middle English
muchares skulking thieves, English
miche ,
micher .]
An avaricious, grasping fellow; a miser; a niggard; a churl. A gray-headed curmudgeon of a negro.
W. Irving.
Curmudgeonly Cur·mudg"eon·ly adjective Like a curmudgeon; niggardly; churlish; as, a curmudgeonly fellow.
Curmurring Cur·mur"ring noun Murmuring; grumbling; -- sometimes applied to the rumbling produced by a slight attack of the gripes. [ Scot.]
Burns.
Curr Curr intransitive verb [ Prob. imitative.]
To coo. [ Scot.]
The owlets hoot, the owlets curr .
Wordsworth.
Currant Cur"rant noun [ French
corinthe (raisins de
Corinthe raisins of Corinth) currant (in sense 1), from the city of
Corinth in Greece, whence, probably, the small dried grape (1) was first imported, the
Ribes fruit (2) receiving the name from its resemblance to that grape.]
1. A small kind of seedless raisin, imported from the Levant, chiefly from Zante and Cephalonia; -- used in cookery. 2. The acid fruit or berry of the Ribes rubrum or common red currant, or of its variety, the white currant. 3. (Botany) A shrub or bush of several species of the genus Ribes (a genus also including the gooseberry); esp., the Ribes rubrum . Black currant ,
a shrub or bush ( Ribes nigrum and R. floridum ) and its black, strong- flavored, tonic fruit. --
Cherry currant ,
a variety of the red currant, having a strong, symmetrical bush and a very large berry. --
Currant borer (Zoology) ,
the larva of an insect that bores into the pith and kills currant bushes; specif., the larvae of a small clearwing moth ( Ægeria tipuliformis ) and a longicorn beetle ( Psenocerus supernotatus ). --
Currant worm (Zoology) ,
an insect larva which eats the leaves or fruit of the currant. The most injurious are the currant sawfly ( Nematus ventricosus ), introduced from Europe, and the spanworm ( Eufitchia ribearia ). The fruit worms are the larva of a fly ( Epochra Canadensis ), and a spanworm ( Eupithecia ). --
Flowering currant ,
Missouri currant ,
a species of Ribes ( R. aureum ), having showy yellow flowers.
Currency Cur"ren·cy noun ;
plural Currencies (-s...z). [ Confer Late Latin
currentia a current, from Latin
currens , present participle of
currere to run. See
Current .]
1. A continued or uninterrupted course or flow like that of a stream; as, the currency of time. [ Obsolete]
Ayliffe. 2. The state or quality of being current; general acceptance or reception; a passing from person to person, or from hand to hand; circulation; as, a report has had a long or general currency ; the currency of bank notes. 3. That which is in circulation, or is given and taken as having or representing value; as, the currency of a country; a specie currency ; esp., government or bank notes circulating as a substitute for metallic money. 4. Fluency; readiness of utterance. [ Obsolete]
5. Current value; general estimation; the rate at which anything is generally valued. He . . . takes greatness of kingdoms according to their bulk and currency , and not after intrinsic value.
Bacon.
The bare name of Englishman . . . too often gave a transient currency to the worthless and ungrateful.
W. Irving.
Current Cur"rent adjective [ Middle English
currant , Old French
curant ,
corant , present participle of
curre ,
corre , F.
courre ,
courir , to run, from Latin
currere ; perhaps akin to E.
horse . Confer
Course ,
Concur ,
Courant ,
Coranto .]
1. Running or moving rapidly. [ Archaic]
Like the current fire, that renneth
Upon a cord.
Gower.
To chase a creature that was current then
In these wild woods, the hart with golden horns.
Tennyson.
2. Now passing, as time; as, the current month. 3. Passing from person to person, or from hand to hand; circulating through the community; generally received; common; as, a current coin; a current report; current history. That there was current money in Abraham's time is past doubt.
Arbuthnot.
Your fire-new stamp of honor is scarce current .
Shak.
His current value, which is less or more as men have occasion for him.
Grew.
4. Commonly estimated or acknowledged. 5. Fitted for general acceptance or circulation; authentic; passable. O Buckingham, now do I play the touch
To try if thou be current gold indeed.
Shak.
Account current .
See under Account . --
Current money ,
lawful money. Abbott.
Current Cur"rent noun [ Confer French
courant . See
Current ,
adjective ]
1. A flowing or passing; onward motion. Hence: A body of fluid moving continuously in a certain direction; a stream; esp., the swiftest part of it; as, a current of water or of air; that which resembles a stream in motion; as, a current of electricity. Two such silver currents , when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bound them in.
Shak.
The surface of the ocean is furrowed by currents , whose direction . . . the navigator should know.
Nichol.
2. General course; ordinary procedure; progressive and connected movement; as, the current of time, of events, of opinion, etc. Current meter ,
an instrument for measuring the velocity, force, etc., of currents. --
Current mill ,
a mill driven by a current wheel. --
Current wheel ,
a wheel dipping into the water and driven by the current of a stream or by the ebb and flow of the tide. Syn. -- Stream; course. See
Stream .
Currently Cur"rent·ly adverb In a current manner; generally; commonly; as, it is currently believed.
Currentness Cur"rent·ness noun 1. The quality of being current; currency; circulation; general reception. 2. Easiness of pronunciation; fluency. [ Obsolete]
When currentness [ combineth] with staidness, how can the language . . . sound other than most full of sweetness?
Camden.
Curricle Cur"ri·cle noun [ Latin
curriculum a running, a race course, from
currere to run. See
Current , and confer
Curriculum .]
1. A small or short course. Upon a curricle in this world depends a long course of the next.
Sir T. Browne.
2. A two-wheeled chaise drawn by two horses abreast.
Curriculum Cur·ric"u·lum noun ;
plural English
Curriculums (-l...mz), Latin
Curricula (-l...). [ Latin See
Curricle .]
1. A race course; a place for running. 2. A course; particularly, a specified fixed course of study, as in a university.
Currie Cur"rie noun & v. See 2d & 3d Curry .
Curried Cur"ried (-r...d)
p. adjective [ See
Curry ,
transitive verb , and
Curry ,
noun ]
1. Dressed by currying; cleaned; prepared. 2. Prepared with curry; as, curried rice, fowl, etc.
Currier Cur"ri·er noun [ From 1st
Curry .]
One who curries and dresses leather, after it is tanned.
Currish Cur"rish adjective [ From
Cur .]
Having the qualities, or exhibiting the characteristics, of a cur; snarling; quarrelsome; snappish; churlish; hence, also malicious; malignant; brutal. Thy currish spirit
Governed a wolf.
Shak.
Some currish plot, -- some trick.
Lockhart.
--
Cur"rish*ly ,
adverb --
Cur"rish*ness ,
noun
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