Adjacent Words

Curious definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CURIOUS, a. [L., care. See Cure.]
1. Strongly desirous to see what is novel, or to discover what is unknown; solicitous to see or to know; inquisitive.
Be not curious in unnecessary matters, nor to pry into the concerns of your neighbors.
2. Habitually inquisitive; addicted to research or enquiry; as a man of a curious turn of mind; sometimes followed by after, and sometimes by of.
Curious after things elegant and beautiful; curious of antiquities.
3. Accurate; careful not to mistake; solicitous to be correct.
Men were not curious what syllables or particles they used.
4. Careful; nice; solicitous in selection; difficult to please.
A temperate man is not curious of delicacies.
5. Nice; exact; subtile; made with care.
Both these senses embrace their objects--with a more curious discrimination.
6. Artful; nicely diligent.
Each ornament about her seemly lies, by curious chance, or careless art, composed.
7. Wrought with care and art; elegant; neat; finished; as a curious girdle; curious work Exodus 28 and 30.
8. Requiring care and nicety; as curious arts. Acts 19.
9. Rigid; severe; particular. [Little used.]
10. Rare; singular; a a curious fact.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: beyond or deviating from the usual or expected; "a curious hybrid accent"; "her speech has a funny twang"; "they have some funny ideas about war"; "had an odd name"; "the peculiar aromatic odor of cloves"; "something definitely queer about this town"; "what a rum fellow"; "singular behavior" [syn: curious, funny, odd, peculiar, queer, rum, rummy, singular]
2: eager to investigate and learn or learn more (sometimes about others' concerns); "a curious child is a teacher's delight"; "a trap door that made me curious"; "curious investigators"; "traffic was slowed by curious rubberneckers"; "curious about the neighbor's doings" [ant: incurious]
3: having curiosity aroused; eagerly interested in learning more; "a trap door that made me curious"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French curios, from Latin curiosus careful, inquisitive, from cura cure Date: 14th century 1. a. archaic made carefully b. obsolete abstruse c. archaic precisely accurate 2. a. marked by desire to investigate and learn b. marked by inquisitive interest in others' concerns ; nosy 3. exciting attention as strange, novel, or unexpected ; odd <a curious coincidence> • curiousness noun Synonyms: curious, inquisitive, prying mean interested in what is not one's personal or proper concern. curious a neutral term, basically connotes an active desire to learn or to know <children are curious about everything>. inquisitive suggests impertinent and habitual curiosity and persistent quizzing <dreaded the visits of their inquisitive relatives>. prying implies busy meddling and officiousness <prying neighbors who refuse to mind their own business>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 eager to learn; inquisitive. 2 strange, surprising, odd. 3 euphem. (of books etc.) erotic, pornographic. Derivatives: curiously adv. curiousness n. Etymology: ME f. OF curios f. L curiosus careful f. cura care

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Curious Cu"ri*ous (k?"r?-?s), a. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.] 1. Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [Obs.] Little curious in her clothes. --Fuller. How shall we, If he be curious, work upon his faith? --Beau. & Fl. 2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed; elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill. To devise curious works. --Ex. xxxv. 32 His body couched in a curious bed. --Shak. 3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; -- sometimes with after or of. It is a pity a gentleman so very curious after things that were elegant and beautiful should not have been as curious as to their origin, their uses, and their natural history. --Woodward. 4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise; inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or plain; strange; rare. ``Acurious tale'' --Shak. A multitude of curious analogies. --Macaulay. Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. --E. A. Poe. Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of learning or sciense often bring to light curious results. --C. J. Smith. Curious arts, magic. [Obs.] Many . . . which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them. --Acts xix. 19. Syn: Inquisitive; prying. See Inquisitive.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If you are curious about something, you are interested in it and want to know more about it. Steve was intensely curious about the world I came from... ...a group of curious villagers. = inquisitive ADJ: usu v-link ADJ, oft ADJ about n • curiously The woman in the shop had looked at them curiously... ADV: ADV after v 2. If you describe something as curious, you mean that it is unusual or difficult to understand. The pageant promises to be a curious mixture of the ancient and modern... The naval high command's response to these developments is rather curious. = odd, peculiar ADJ • curiously Harry was curiously silent through all this... ADV: ADV adj, ADV with cl

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ku'-ri-us (machashebheth; periergos): The above Hebrew word, meaning "thought," "device," "design," is translated "curious," Ex 35:32 the King James Version "curious works"; the English Revised Version "cunning"; the American Standard Revised Version "skilful"; cheshebh ("device," "devised work"), translated the King James Version "curious girdle," is translated by the English Revised Version "cunningly woven band," the American Standard Revised Version "skilfully" (Ex 28:8,27,28; 29:5; 39:5,20,21; Le 8:7). In Ps 139:15 raqam, "embroidered," "variegated" is used figuratively of a child in the womb, translated "curiously wrought"; "the body or the fetus is described as woven together of so many different-colored threads, like a cunning and beautiful network or tapestry" (Perowne in the place cited.). See also CURDLE. Periergos, "working round about," is used of the "curious arts" of some in Ephesus who brought their books to be burned (Ac 19:19 the American Standard Revised Version "magical").

See ASTROLOGY 14.

W. L. Walker

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Inquisitive, scrutinizing, prying, peering. 2. Rare, singular, strange, unusual, unique, extraordinary, queer, out of the way. 3. Elegant, neat, nice, finished, skilful, cunning, well-wrought.

Moby Thesaurus

aberrant, abnormal, absurd, agape, agog, all agog, analytical, attentive, attracted, barmy, bizarre, burning with curiosity, careful, catechistic, cathectic, cautious, circumspect, concerned, considerate, consumed with curiosity, deviant, deviate, eccentric, enthusiastic, erratic, examining, excited, exotic, extraordinary, fascinated, freaked out, freakish, freaky, funny, ghoulish, gossipy, grotesque, heedful, impertinent, inquiring, inquisitional, inquisitive, inquisitorial, interested, interfering, intermeddling, interrogational, interrogative, interrogatory, intrusive, investigative, irregular, itchy, keen on, kinky, kooky, loving, meddlesome, meddling, mindful, morbid, morbidly curious, nosy, nuts, nutty, odd, oddball, off, off the wall, offbeat, open-eyed, openmouthed, out, outlandish, outrageous, outre, overcurious, passing strange, passionate, peculiar, piqued, pixilated, prurient, prying, quaint, queer, querying, questioning, quizzical, quizzing, regardful, scopophiliac, scrutinizing, searching, singular, snooping, snoopy, solicitous, strange, supercurious, tantalized, tender, thoughtful, tickled, titillated, turned-on, unconventional, unearthly, unusual, voyeuristic, weird, wondrous strange