C — Curculionidous to Curl (Part 5 of 6)

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. "Acurious 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. [Obs.]

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), adv. In a curious manner.

Curiousness
(Cu"ri*ous*ness), n.

1. Carefulness; painstaking. [Obs.]

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) v. 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, n., 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 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.

Curl
(Curl), v. i.