CURIOSITY

n.

3 definitions — Webster’s Dictionary (1828)


1.
n.

The state or quality or being curious; nicety; accuracy; exactness; elaboration. [Obs.] Bacon. When thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity. Shak. A screen accurately cut in tapiary work . . . with great curiosity. Evelin.

2.
n.

Disposition to inquire, investigate, or seek after knowledge; a desire to gratify the mind with new information or objects of interest; inquisitiveness. Milton.

3.
n.

That which is curious, or fitted to excite or reward attention. We took a ramble together to see the curiosities of this great town. Addison. There hath been practiced also a curiosity, to set a tree upon the north side of a wall, and, at a little hieght, to draw it through the wall, etc. Bacon.


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