adjective
-
tending to curl; curling
-
having curls
-
(of timber) having irregular curves or waves in the grain
-
difficult to counter or answer
a curly question
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of curly
Explanation
Something that's curly is wavy, coiled, or spiral-shaped. While you might envy your friend's straight, shiny hair, she may be equally envious of your wild, curly hair. You can add curly ribbons to a plain package to dress it up, or buy kale in different varieties, including one with curly leaves. You're most likely to use the adjective curly, however, to describe someone's hair, if it falls in ringlets. Curly comes from curl, which was originally crulle, probably from the Middle Dutch word krul, "curly."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
After her cancer went into remission, she wanted to restore her long curly hair and began taking biotin supplements after reading about them online.
From Science Daily ● May 7, 2026
In the image he has dark skin, receding curly hair, a thick handlebar mustache, deep-set eyes and a dark suit emblazoned with a crest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026
Natalie's daughter Murran, 15, said the workshops were "very factual and it's good to know because the majority of my family have got curly hair".
From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2026
Mandy sits beside the cafe caravan with a coffee and is accompanied by her curly grey-haired canine friend, Walter.
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2026
Ira had a mop of curly red hair and was like a boy version of Little Orphan Annie.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
The researchers found that the animals had longer, curlier hair, but no evidence that the mammoth's fat-increasing gene had an effect.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2025
The less evenly distributed the squiggly proteins are, the curlier the hair.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 16, 2023
“It’s curlier and frizzier and I love it,” Kouatchou said.
From Reuters ● Oct. 24, 2021
The product, Soul Cap, is meant to accommodate thicker, curlier hair textures to provide a better fit and protect hair from chlorine.
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2021
His hair had grown out longer and curlier.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
I don’t recall which of my appeals drew Todbaum’s curliest scorn, only that it got pretty curly.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 25, 2019
Limping, hobbling, they tussled until nightfall, when the Navy goat had to admit that the absence of Shapely, one of its curliest horns, was too great a handicap.
From Time Magazine Archive
Big nose and big ears and the curliest hair at the fair.
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
Peanner, or flute, or fiddle, or the curliest instrument out of a brass band, it was all one to her; it come sort o' natural to her to fetch music out of anything.
From Such Is Life by Furphy, Joseph
Altogether, this was the curliest family of lions ever seen, and Daddy Leo appeared to be the funniest curly-headed and curly-bodied lion ever seen.
From Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks by Griffis, William Elliot
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
