curdle

American  

[kur-dl] / ˈkɜr dl /

verb (used with or without object)

curdled, curdling

1. to change into curd; coagulate; congeal.

2. to spoil; turn sour.

3. to go wrong; turn bad or fail.

   Their friendship began to curdle as soon as they became business rivals.

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idioms

1. curdle the / one's blood, to fill a person with horror or fear; terrify.

   a scream that curdled the blood.

curdle British  

/ ˈkɜːdəl /

verb

1. to turn or cause to turn into curd

2. to fill someone with fear

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Other Word Forms

• curdler noun
• noncurdling adjective
• uncurdled adjective
• uncurdling adjective

Etymology

Origin of curdle

First recorded in 1580–90; curd + -le

Example Sentences

Sharon would soon suffer a devastating stroke, but his Gaza policy survived and curdled.

From The Wall Street Journal

Two Navy sailors, Jefferson Jones and his pal, Sink, have been adrift on a raft for 18 days, long enough for hunger to curdle into imagination.

From Salon

Piercing and horrible, the screaming is pitched to curdle the listener’s blood but not, in this instance, to overwhelm the voice of the narrator.

From The Wall Street Journal

By now she understood that the mood in the nursery had begun to curdle, so to speak, and that the cause had something to do with her shutting of the windows.

From Literature

There may be an undercurrent of gossip, like the hints of discord between Affleck and Leavitt, but nothing that curdles our mood.

From Salon