Curl

Definition of Curl

Pronunciation: kûrl
v. t.1.To twist or form into ringlets; to crisp, as the hair.
[imp. & p. p. Curled (kûrld); p. pr. & vb. n. Curling.]
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 curledMegæra.
- 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.
v. 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.
- 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.
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.
n.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.

Related Words

arc, arch, bend, bend back, bow, catacaustic, catenary, caustic, circle, cirrus, coil, conchoid, corkscrew, crimp, crisp, crook, curlicue, curve, decurve, deflect, diacaustic, dome, ellipse, embow, entwine, evolute, festoon, flex, frizz, frizzle, gyre, helix, hook, hump, hunch, hyperbola, incurvate, incurve, inflect, involute, kink, lituus, lock, loop, parabola, ponytail, recurve, reflect, reflex, retroflex, ringlet, roll, round, sag, screw, scroll, sinus, spiral, swag, sweep, swirl, tendril, tracery, turn, twine, twirl, twist, vault, volute, volution, vortex, whirl, whorl, wind, wreathe
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