curve

American  

[kurv] / kɜrv /

noun

1. a continuously bending line, without angles.

2. the act or extent of curving.

3. any curved outline, form, thing, or part.

4. a curved section of a road, path, hallway, etc.

5. Railroads. a curved section of track: in the U.S. the curve is often expressed as the central angle, measured in degrees, of a curved section of track subtended by a chord 100 feet (30 meters) long degree of curve.

6. Baseball.

   1. curveball.

   2. the path followed by a ball pitched as a curveball.

      The curve on that ball was nasty!

7. a graphic representation of the variations effected in something by the influence of changing conditions; graph.

8. Mathematics. a collection of points whose coordinates are continuous functions of a single independent variable.

9. a misleading or deceptive trick; cheat; deception.

10. Education. a grading system based on the scale of performance, so that those performing better relative to others in the group, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject, receive high grades.

    The new English professor grades on a curve.

11. a curved guide used in drafting.

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verb (used with object)

curved, curving

1. to bend in a curve; cause to take the course of a curve.

2. to grade on a curve.

verb (used without object)

curved, curving

1. to bend in a curve; take the course of a curve.

2. Baseball. to pitch a curveball.

   After two forkballs, Stewart curved to Hernandez for a called strike.

adjective

1. having the shape of a curve; curved.

idioms

1. throw (someone) a curve,

   1. to take (someone) by surprise, especially in a negative way.

   2. to mislead or deceive.

2. flatten the curve. flatten the curve.

3. ahead of / behind the curve, at the forefront of (or lagging behind) recent developments, trends, etc.

curve British  

/ ˈkɜːvɪdlɪ, kɜːv /

noun

1. a continuously bending line that has no straight parts

2. something that curves or is curved, such as a bend in a road or the contour of a woman's body

3. the act or extent of curving; curvature

4. maths

   1. a system of points whose coordinates satisfy a given equation; a locus of points

   2. the graph of a function with one independent variable

5. a line representing data, esp statistical data, on a graph

   an unemployment curve

6. ahead of the times; ahead of schedule

7. behind the times; behind schedule

8. short for French curve

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verb

1. to take or cause to take the shape or path of a curve; bend

curve Scientific  

/ kûrv /

1. A line or surface that bends in a smooth, continuous way without sharp angles.

2. The graph of a function on a coordinate plane. In this technical sense, straight lines, circles, and waves are all curves.

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curve More Idioms  

1. see throw a curve.

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Other Word Forms

• curvedly adverb
• curvedness noun
• curveless adjective
• curvy adjective
• uncurved adjective
• uncurving adjective
• undercurve noun
• well-curved adjective

Etymology

Origin of curve

First recorded in 1565–75; from Middle French or directly from Latin curvus “crooked, bent, curved”

Example Sentences

Dan smiled and led me to a very tiny circular bathroom that had a tall, curved pocket door made of copper.

From Los Angeles Times

The sculpture’s curved, draping form looks both stiff and pliable, cartoonish and menacing.

From The Wall Street Journal

Treasury yield curve, where short-term yields fall faster than longer-dated ones.

From Barron's

Accurately tracking how that radiation moves through curved spacetime and interacts with nearby gas is essential for understanding what astronomers actually observe.

From Science Daily

The car wants to take its line through curves and will fight you for it.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• bend
• buckle
• bulge
• coil
• crumple
• curl
• loop
• skew
• spiral
• swerve
• twist
• veer