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curl

Pronunciation: /kɜːl/

The English word “curl” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A curving piece or lock of hair; a ringlet.
  2. A curved stroke or shape.
  3. A spin making the trajectory of an object curve.
  4. Movement of a moving rock away from a straight line.
  5. Any exercise performed by bending the arm, wrist, or leg on the exertion against resistance, especially those that train the biceps.
  6. The vector field denoting the rotationality of a given vector field.
  7. The vector operator, denoted rm curl; or ⃑∇×⃑(·), that generates this field.
  8. Any of various diseases of plants causing the leaves or shoots to curl up; often specifically the potato curl.
  9. The contrasting light and dark figure seen in wood used for stringed instrument making; the flame.
  10. A pattern where the receiver appears to be running a fly pattern but after a set number of steps or yards quickly stops and turns around, looking for a pass.
  11. A thin, curved piece of chocolate used as decoration.
  12. The concave part of a breaking wave.

verb

  1. To cause to move in a curve.
  2. To make into a curl or spiral.
  3. To assume the shape of a curl or spiral.
  4. To move in curves.
  5. To take part in the sport of curling.
  6. To exercise by bending the arm, wrist, or leg on the exertion against resistance, especially of the biceps.
  7. To twist or form (the hair, etc.) into ringlets.
  8. To deck with, or as if with, curls; to ornament.

Etymology

From metathesis of Middle English crulle (“curled, curly”), of uncertain origin but probably from an unrecorded Old English word or from Middle Dutch crul, crulle (“curl”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kruzlǭ (“bent or crooked object, curl”), connected to *krūsą (“curl”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Krulle (“curl, lock”), West Frisian krul (“curl”), Dutch krul (“curl”),…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.