curl
- to form into coils or ringlets, as the hair.
- to form into a spiral or curved shape; coil.
- to adorn with, or as with, curls or ringlets.
- to grow in or form curls or ringlets, as the hair.
- to become curved or undulated.
- to coil.
- to play at the game of curling.
- to progress in a curving direction or path; move in a curving or spiraling way: The ball curled toward the plate.
- a coil or ringlet of hair.
- anything of a spiral or curved shape, as a lettuce leaf, wood shaving, etc.
- a coil.
- the act of curling or state of being curled.
- Plant Pathology.
- the distortion, fluting, or puffing of a leaf, resulting from the unequal development of its two sides.
- a disease so characterized.
- Also called rotation. Mathematics.
- a vector obtained from a given vector by taking its cross product with the vector whose coordinates are the partial derivative operators with respect to each coordinate.
- the operation that produces this vector.
- Weightlifting.
- an underhand forearm lift in which the barbell, held against the thighs, is raised to the chest and then lowered while keeping the legs, upper arms, and shoulders taut.
- a similar forearm lift using a dumbbell or dumbbells, usually from the side of the body to the shoulders.
- curl up, to sit or lie down cozily: to curl up with a good book.
- curl one's lip, to assume or display an expression of contempt: He curled his lip in disdain.
- curl one's/the hair, to fill with horror or fright; shock: Some of his stories about sailing across the Atlantic are enough to curl one's hair.
Origin of curl
Related Words for curl
coil, buckle, writhe, curve, contort, twist, fold, twirl, spiral, quirk, kink, wave, whorl, swirl, flourish, crimp, frizz, curlicue, convolute, crookExamples from the Web for curl
Contemporary Examples of curl
The only surprise was the left collar point, which was allowed to curl.
Poetry is no longer something we curl up to with a cup of tea.
Jonathan Coulton's song "Curl," with footage of Stephen Colbert trying out for the 2010 U.S. Curling Team.
Or to put it another way, sweeping helps make the stone not curl.
The smoke from his cigarette will curl around his head and nothing else near him will move, and you will wonder what he sees.
The Stacks: John Schulian’s Classic Profile of Newspaper Columnist Mike RoykoJohn Schulian
January 5, 2014
Historical Examples of curl
I see again the curl on the lip of a certain kind of girl-reader!
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
The inner petals are shorter and curve and curl toward the center.
The Mayflower, January, 1905Various
Her hair was damp and out of curl, as though she had just had a bath.
She looked at him in amazement; then her lips began to curl.
Keziah CoffinJoseph C. Lincoln
"No, of course not," said Mrs. Garth, with a curl of the lip.
The Shadow of a CrimeHall Caine
curl
- (intr) (esp of hair) to grow into curves or ringlets
- (tr sometimes foll by up) to twist or roll (something, esp hair) into coils or ringlets
- (often foll by up) to become or cause to become spiral-shaped or curved; coilthe heat made the leaves curl up
- (intr) to move in a curving or twisting manner
- (intr) to play the game of curling
- curl one's lip to show contempt, as by raising a corner of the lip
- a curve or coil of hair
- a curved or spiral shape or mark, as in wood
- the act of curling or state of being curled
- any of various plant diseases characterized by curling of the leaves
- Also called: rot, rotation maths a vector quantity associated with a vector field that is the vector product of the operator ∇ and a vector function A, where ∇ = i ∂/∂ x + j ∂/∂b y + k ∂/∂ z, i, j, and k being unit vectors. Usually written curl A, rot ACompare divergence (def. 4), gradient (def. 4)
Word Origin for curl
Word Origin and History for curl
mid-15c., metathesis of crulle (c.1300), probably from an unrecorded Old English word or from Middle Dutch krul "curly," from Proto-Germanic *krusl- (cf. East Frisian krull "lock of hair," Middle High German krol, Norwegian krull, Danish krølle "curl"). The noun is recorded from c.1600.