Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A fancy twist or curl, such as a flourish made with a pen.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Something fantastically curled or twisted: as, to make a curlicue with the pen; to cut curlicues in skating.
Wiktionary
- n. A fancy twisting or curling shape made from a series of concentric circles.
- v. transitive and intransitive To make or adorn (something) with curlicues, or as if with curlicues
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Colloq. U.S. Some thing curled or spiral, as a flourish made with a pen on paper, or with skates on the ice; a trick; a frolicsome caper.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a short twisting line
- n. a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles (as formed by leaves or flower petals)
Etymologies
- From curly + cue. (Wiktionary)
- curly + cue1, tail, and possibly cue3. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The curlicue is a little uneven, too, but the chef complimented my pear, and I rather like it myself.”
“Remnants of the feathers and "curlicue" designs can still be seen.”
“Portis's language is an archaic, biblically inflected 19th-century American English, free of contractions, a plainsong not averse to rhetorical filigree and curlicue – a perfect fit for the hyper-literate, word-drunk Coens.”
The Guardian: With True Grit, the Coen brothers have given the western back its teeth
“Your reviews are very good, but they could be more interesting if you didn't feel the need to lecture us about movie genealogical connections we might already be familiar with, or if you didn't rely so heavily on the Thesaurus you seem to have parked at your elbow or in your brain - "oft-presumed", "essayed", "curlicue"?”
The Guardian: With True Grit, the Coen brothers have given the western back its teeth
“The words, in typical French curlicue cursive read: Cherche Quelqu'un pour le mois d'Août.”
“I set down thesac à doson the cobbled sidewalk in time to reread the curlicue announcement but no sooner had I translated the first word than the shop door flew open setting off a commotion of cowbells.”
“Only, they haven't, as good as a proof is in a excellent, curlicue guitar work of songs similar to "Plans" as good as "I Don't Wanna Go There.”
The Best Albums Of 2009, In Bigger Than The Sound | Industry Fokery
“The words inscribed on his inner forearms, in fine curlicue, reveal more than he is prepared to say out loud.”
The Guardian: Ashley Young still aiming to win his spurs with England
“And that's exactly why she doesn't need Autotune -- that little curlicue would be just as impressive without it.”
“A woman after my own heart, Diane von Furstenberg in a gold evening coat takes a shot of a 1939 Steven Arpad shoe, the curlicue carved heel forming a wedge.”
The Huffington Post: Regina Weinreich: Following my Nose to the Brooklyn Ball
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘curlicue’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
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gyre - enquired & unquired
Early in the fall, I watched several hundred eagles riding gyres - higher and higher - as they caught a lift on their migration South. An enquire and unquire of gyre appears called for.
Argyre, argyre planitia, gyreful, Gyrfalcon, gyrencephala, curl, curlicue, gyral, whorl, jabberwocky, gyre, frizzle and 21 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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Words I'd Like to Use Someday
thundersnow, phantasmagoria, mercurial, chimerical, taciturn, paraclete, lapis lazuli, flay, guttersnipe, wonky, misanthrope, kestrel and 583 more...
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vocabulary
verisimilitude, pendulate, moxie, whimper, nary, stevedore, hubris, prodigious, super-injunction, injunction, lashings, fennel and 202 more...
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madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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lanas's Words
serendipitous, insouciant, charming, sanguine, dear, odd, quaint, small, tremble, blush, flirt, tryst and 248 more...
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List of words to expand my vocabulary
does what it says on the tin, and is severely needed.
indolent, insolent, idly, divulge, tattle, benign, roguish, daintily, idle, dowdy, sordid, wanton and 242 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Tolland's list
Those I've come across and try to keep fresh within my mind.
clandestine, dysphoric, indictive, vigil, fractious, assiduous, indefatigable, ubiquitous, insidious, paroicous, aplomb, sangfroid and 654 more...
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kingrat47's Words
procrustean, devolution, cacophony, hippopotamus, crunch, beware, chortled, sibilant, subtle, undermine, acromegaly, acropolis and 645 more...
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librarygoblin's words
crystal, ghost, mist, snow, labyrinth, citadel, tomb, mystery, arcane, conundrum, echo, dynamo and 389 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for curlicue.

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