Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To change into curd. See Synonyms at coagulate.
- v. To become congealed as if by having changed into curd: The blood in my veins curdled at the horrific sight.
- v. To go bad or become spoiled.
- v. To cause to change into or as if into curd.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To change into curd; cause to thicken or coagulate.
- To coagulate or thicken; become curd.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive, intransitive To form curds so that it no longer flows smoothly; to cause to form such curds. (usually said of milk)
- v. transitive, intransitive To clot or coagulate; to cause to congeal, such as through cold. (metaphorically of blood)
- v. transitive To cause a liquid to spoil and form clumps so that it no longer flows smoothly
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To change into curd; to coagulate.
- v. To thicken; to congeal.
- v. To change into curd; to cause to coagulate.
- v. To congeal or thicken.
WordNet 3.0
- v. turn from a liquid to a solid mass
- v. turn into curds
- v. go bad or sour
Etymologies
- Metathesis of Middle English crudle, from an Old English crudan ("to press, drive") via crud. (Wiktionary)
- Frequentative of curd. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Pour in the lemon juice and stir to a smooth consistency, allowing the juice to "curdle" and "cook" the eggs and milk.”
“Caution, therefore, is good: fear, however, will almost certainly curdle your hollandaise quicker than the evillest of eyes.”
“Ressentiment sometimes goads such mass movements into a fleeting brilliance, but they curdle and collapse, tragi-comically or catastrophically, on their own cowardice, ignorance, and lies.”
The Huffington Post: Jim Sleeper: Behind The Snarking About OWS
“And the sky is blue, baby lambs are fuzzy and warm and milk will curdle if you pour it into orange juice.”
First on the CNN Ticker: GOP questions Obama's police criticism
“But what makes milk curdle more often than not is acidity.”
“Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition so the mixture doesn't curdle.”
“It is essential not to let the mixture get too hot otherwise it will curdle.”
“Cut to our discount-aisle Eminem challenging The Gadget Master to a technoduel with a nearby Yaris driver whose face is so smug it could curdle mahogany.”
“Make sure the water in the tin comes at least two-thirds up the sides of the moulds, otherwise your dessert will curdle.”
“There is some concern that if people become too comfortable in not talking about the cultural issues, that that could ultimately curdle into a lack of interest," said Republican strategist Ralph Reed, a onetime executive director of the Christian Coalition.”
The Washington Post: At CPAC forum, potential GOP candidates must navigate social-fiscal tension
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘curdle’.
-
EN - archaic words
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 328 more...
-
IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
-
Noodle and such
noodle, ladle, middle, model, muddle, addle, paddle, piddle, dreidel, toddle, poodle, streudel and 16 more...
-
[Open] Frequentative
“A verb which denotes the frequent occurrence or repetition of an action, as . . . waggle from wag.” — Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia.
Other examples include bobble (bob), bustle (b...dartle, stutter, agitate, dabble, waggle, aid, argue, daunt, expect, excite, espouse, dictate and 77 more...
-
the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
-
Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
Malachi_Constant's Words
triumverate, pandemic, parsnip, delineate, zamboni, parka, laser, swoop, malevolent, benevolent, fracas, tipsy and 372 more...
-
Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
-
stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
-
ifjuly's list
favorite words. some are made up injokes between me and my husband or family.
skein, zaftig, july, bed, orifice, aesthete, ink, parce-que, desormais, cake, pusillanimous, pulse and 531 more...
-
Just 'cause I like 'em, C
cryptoxanthin, convent, calcar, chuckle, campanile, covet, complexion, campestral, chirography, counterscarp, caliginous, catabolism and 722 more...
-
What's next here?
thunderhead, thundercloud, cumulus, cumulonimbus, fibrous, hazy, glaciated, cirrus, nimbus, meteorology, fahrenheit, thermoscope and 285 more...
-
Words That Sound Dirty but Really Aren't
annals, assassinate, bisect, bubbly, caucus, caulk, colloquialism, concoct, condominium, congeal, congenital, convex and 131 more...
-
vocab set 2
careen, catapult, comprehension, curdle, disfigure, exultant, flank, grace, hurtle, level, mottled, pent-up and 8 more...
-
Least Favorite Words
blog, painterly, choicest, evildoer, perpetrator, murmur, gab, schmooze, macerate, feeble, lusty, boobs and 72 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for curdle.
yarb Citation on pus. Jun 22, 2008