curl

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To twist (the hair, for example) into ringlets or coils.
2. v. To form into a coiled or spiral shape: curled the ends of the ribbon.
3. v. To decorate with coiled or spiral shapes.
4. v. To raise and turn under (the upper lip), as in snarling or showing scorn.
5. v. Sports To lift (a weight) by performing a curl.
6. v. To form ringlets or coils.
7. v. To assume a spiral or curved shape.
8. v. To move in a curve or spiral: The wave curled over the surfer.
9. v. Sports To engage in curling.
10. n. Something with a spiral or coiled shape.
11. n. A coil or ringlet of hair.
12. n. A treatment in which the hair is curled.
13. n. The act of curling: the curl of a meandering river.
14. n. The state of being curled.
15. n. Sports A weightlifting exercise using one or two hands, in which a weight held at the thigh or to the side of the body is raised to the chest or shoulder and then lowered without moving the upper arms, shoulders, or back.
16. n. Any of various plant diseases in which the leaves roll up.
17. curl up To assume a position with the legs drawn up: The child curled up in an armchair to read.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A ringlet of hair.
2. n. Hence Something having a similar spiral form; any undulation, sinuosity, or flexure.
3. n. Specifically, a winding or circling in the grain of wood.
4. n. A disease of peach-trees which causes great distortion of the leaves. It is caused by an ascomycetous fungus, Taphrina deformans. See Taphrina.
5. n. In mathematics, the vector part of the quaternion resulting from the performance of the operation i.d/dx + j.d/dy + k.d/dz on any vector function iX + jY + kZ.
6. To turn, bend, or form into ringlets, as the hair.
7. To dress or adorn with or as with curls; make up the hair of into curls.
8. To bring or form into the spiral shape of a ringlet or curl; in general, to make curves, turns, or undulations in or on.
9. To take the form of curls or ringlets, as hair.
10. Hence To assume any similar spiral shape; in general, to become curved, bent, or undulated: often with up.
11. To turn and twist about; writhe; squirm.
12. To play at curling. See curling.
13. n. A disease of potatoes in which the shoots become curled up and deformed. It is attributed to chlorosis.
14. n. A disease of other plants in which the leaves curl up.—Leaf-curl. See leaf-curl.
15. In cricket, to cause (the ball) to curve in the air: said of the bowler.
16. In cricket, to curve in the air: said of the ball.

Wiktionary

1. n. A piece or lock of curling hair; a ringlet.
2. n. A curved stroke or shape.
3. n. A spin making the trajectory of an object curve.
4. n. curling Movement of a moving rock away from a straight line.
5. n. weightlifting Any exercise performed by bending the arm, wrist, or leg on the exertion against resistance, especially those that train the biceps.
6. n. calculus The vector field denoting the rotationality of a given vector field.
7. n. calculus, proper noun The vector operator, denoted or , that generates this field.
8. n. agriculture Any of various diseases of plants causing the leaves or shoots to curl up; often specifically the potato curl.
9. n. music The contrasting light and dark figure seen in wood used for stringed instrument making; the flame.
10. v. transitive To cause to move in a curve.
11. v. transitive To make into a curl or spiral.
12. v. intransitive To assume the shape of a curl or spiral.
13. v. intransitive To move in curves.
14. v. intransitive, curling To take part in the sport of curling
15. v. transitive, weightlifting To exercise by bending the arm, wrist, or leg on the exertion against resistance, especially of the biceps.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To twist or form into ringlets; to crisp, as the hair.
2. v. To twist or make onto coils, as a serpent's body.
3. v. To deck with, or as with, curls; to ornament.
4. v. To raise in waves or undulations; to ripple.
5. v. (Hat Making) To shape (the brim) into a curve.
6. v. To contract or bend into curls or ringlets, as hair; to grow in curls or spirals, as a vine; to be crinkled or contorted; to have a curly appearance.
7. v. To move in curves, spirals, or undulations; to contract in curving outlines; to bend in a curved form; to make a curl or curls.
8. v. Scot. To play at the game called curling.
9. n. A ringlet, especially of hair; anything of a spiral or winding form.
10. n. An undulating or waving line or streak in any substance, as wood, glass, etc.; flexure; sinuosity.
11. n. A disease in potatoes, in which the leaves, at their first appearance, seem curled and shrunken.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. twist or roll into coils or ringlets
2. v. wind around something in coils or loops
3. n. American chemist who with Richard Smalley and Harold Kroto discovered fullerenes and opened a new branch of chemistry (born in 1933)
4. v. form a curl, curve, or kink
5. v. shape one's body into a curl
6. n. a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles (as formed by leaves or flower petals)
7. v. play the Scottish game of curling
8. n. a strand or cluster of hair