curled

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

curl /kɜrl/   v. 

1. to (cause to) grow in or form small rings;
   (cause to) become curved or wavy: [no object]
   When she was young, her hair curled naturally.
   [~ + object]
   She spent a lot of time curling her hair.
2. to (cause to) curve, twist, or coil: [no object]
   The sleeping cat's tail curled around its body.
   [~ + object]
   The cat curled its tail around itself.
3. to move in a curving direction:
   [no object] The road curls a little to the left.
4. curl up, [no object]
   • to sit or lie down cozily:
     to curl up with a good book.
   • to become twisted up on the edges:
     All his old papers had curled up.

n. [countable]

5. a coil or small ring of hair:
   blond curls.
6. anything of a spiral or curved shape:
   curls of wood on the workshop floor.

Idioms

7. Idioms curl one's or the hair, to fill one with horror:
   That new horror movie will really curl your hair.
8. Idioms curl one's lip, to raise a corner of one's lip, as in an expression of disdain or scorn.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

curl  (kûrl), v.t. 

1. to form into coils or ringlets, as the hair.
2. to form into a spiral or curved shape; coil.
3. to adorn with, or as with, curls or ringlets.

v.i. 

4. to grow in or form curls or ringlets, as the hair.
5. to become curved or undulated.
6. to coil.
7. Games to play at the game of curling.
8. to progress in a curving direction or path;
   move in a curving or spiraling way:
   The ball curled toward the plate.
9. Idioms curl one's or the hair, to fill with horror or fright;
   shock:
   Some of his stories about sailing across the Atlantic are enough to curl one's hair.
10. Idioms curl one's lip, to assume or display an expression of contempt:
    He curled his lip in disdain.
11. curl up, to sit or lie down cozily:
    to curl up with a good book.

n. 

12. a coil or ringlet of hair.
13. anything of a spiral or curved shape, as a lettuce leaf, wood shaving, etc.
14. a coil.
15. the act of curling or state of being curled.
16. [Plant Pathol.]
    • Plant Diseases the distortion, fluting, or puffing of a leaf, resulting from the unequal development of its two sides.
    • Plant Diseases a disease so characterized.
17. Mathematics Also called rotation. 
    • a vector obtained from a given vector by taking its cross product with the vector whose coordinates are the partial derivative operators with respect to each coordinate.
    • the operation that produces this vector.
18. Sport [Weight Lifting.]
    • an underhand forearm lift in which the barbell, held against the thighs, is raised to the chest and then lowered while keeping the legs, upper arms, and shoulders taut.
    • a similar forearm lift using a dumbbell or dumbbells, usually from the side of the body to the shoulders.

• 1400–50; late Middle English, apparently back formation from curled, metathetic variant of Middle English crulled (past participle) crul (adjective, adjectival); compare Middle Dutch crullen to curl, cruller

curl•ed•ly  (kûr′lid lē, kûrld′-), adv.  curl′ed•ness, n. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

curl / kɜːl/ verb

1. (intransitive) (esp of hair) to grow into curves or ringlets
2. (transitive) sometimes followed by up: to twist or roll (something, esp hair) into coils or ringlets
3. (often followed by up) to become or cause to become spiral-shaped or curved; coil
4. (intransitive) to move in a curving or twisting manner
5. (intransitive) to play the game of curling
6. curl one's lip ⇒ to show contempt, as by raising a corner of the lip

noun

1. a curve or coil of hair
2. a curved or spiral shape or mark, as in wood
3. the act of curling or state of being curled
4. a vector quantity associated with a vector field that is the vector product of the operator ∇ and a vector function A, where ∇ = i∂/∂x + j∂/∂by + k∂/∂z,i, j, and k being unit vectors. Usually written curl A, rot A
   Compare gradient4

Etymology: 14th Century: probably from Middle Dutch crullen to curl; related to Middle High German krol curly, Middle Low German krūs curly