curdle
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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curdles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
curdled,
past participle, past
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curdling
present participle
-
to change into curd; coagulate; congeal.
-
to spoil; turn sour.
-
to go wrong; turn bad or fail.
Their friendship began to curdle as soon as they became business rivals.
idioms
verb
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to turn or cause to turn into curd
-
to fill someone with fear
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
curdlesimple
-
curdlessimple
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have curdledperfect
-
has curdledperfect
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am curdlingprogressive
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are curdlingprogressive
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is curdlingprogressive
-
have been curdlingperfect progressive
-
has been curdlingperfect progressive
Past
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curdledsimple
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had curdledperfect
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was curdlingprogressive
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were curdlingprogressive
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had been curdlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of curdle
Explanation
When things curdle, they turn from liquid gradually to solid, forming clumps along the way. If you leave milk out of the refrigerator long enough, it will curdle. When a liquid curdles, it forms curds, or lumpy solid masses. In some cases this is deliberate, as when you make cheese or tofu. Other times, you might accidentally let something curdle, like a custard or sauce, or a forgotten container of cream at the back of your refrigerator. Curdle was originally crudle, from crud (later curd), "any coagulated substance," or "congeal."
Vocabulary lists containing curdle
A Culinary Vocabulary Sampler
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The Odyssey
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Out of the Dust
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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:
A practicing Mormon, Coppins had no previous experience with gambling but quickly learned how easily the “joyful naivete” of his initial use “could curdle into delusion and compulsion.”
From Slate ● May 5, 2026
“I hadn’t understood, at the beginning, that public exposure begot more public exposure, that press begot more press, that parties begot more parties,” she tells us, of how the joys of attention began to curdle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
As co-written by Baumbach and Emily Mortimer, the reunion between the two former acting buddies starts warm but quickly begins to curdle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2025
But I think that people think sometimes you'd be like, 'Oh, cream and citrus together, it going to curdle?'
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2024
Tina shrieks loud enough to curdle the blood of a ghost.
From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
Hilarious and incisive, the humor never draws blood, never curdles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
There may be an undercurrent of gossip, like the hints of discord between Affleck and Leavitt, but nothing that curdles our mood.
From Salon ● Nov. 4, 2025
I’ve seen it over and over in my practice: A gesture that is initially received with intense gratitude curdles into hurt or anger.
From Slate ● Mar. 23, 2025
It turns out you can pay a lot for the privilege of real-time “re-enactments,” and he does, commissioning a series of increasingly elaborate set pieces whose pursuit soon curdles into monomania.
From New York Times ● Jan. 13, 2024
An hour later, the front door pops open, bringing with it a gust of winter and a uniformed detective, the combination of which curdles my stomach.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
When Megan asked, "Whose first concert is this?" the air curdled with screams.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
A curdled mug of nostalgia for adult-size puppets leading children around candy-hued soundstage sets, “Buddy” is a horror comedy scraped from the fuzzy lining of low-rent kiddie programming.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
John Tomasi, president of Heterodox Academy, which advocates for viewpoint diversity on campus, suggested the curdled atmosphere at some schools reflects a failure to teach students to tolerate different views.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
Even as investor sentiment has curdled, TD Cowen believes a sustained appetite for data-center spending could cause Vertiv’s customer orders to accelerate as soon as the fourth quarter.
From Barron's ● Dec. 1, 2025
He didn’t kiss her, didn’t let his face touch hers, but placed it close enough so that he could feel the moistness of her breath and smell its faint curdled scent.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Admiration was quickly curdling into hostility,” he writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
He returned to a hometown that seemed to be developing under that same American planning influence whose reputation was curdling up north.
From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2024
The tagline — “What a guy! What a lug! What a hero! What a bum!” — illustrates the tentative truce between fans and umpires that is always, inevitably, one call from curdling.
From Seattle Times ● May 31, 2024
That queasy, curdling feeling has finally been conquered.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2024
He screamed a blood curdling cry that echoed down the river.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
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.
