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umis Anguria). -- Snake cucumber, a species (Cucumis flexuosus) remarkable for its long, curiously-shaped fruit. -- Squirting cucumber, a plant (Ecbalium Elaterium) whose small oval fruit separates from the footstalk when ripe and expels its seeds and juice with considerable force through the opening thus made. See E…

Wrought with, or exibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious; curious; as, cunning work. Over them Arachne high did lift Her cunning web. Spenser.

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.

to devise an engine, a new mode of writing, a plan of defense, or an argument. To devise curious works. Ex. CCTV. 32. Devising schemes to realize his ambitious views. Bancroft.

of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed . . . that it was indeed a very curious show. Burke.

hen to her eager lips is brought Her infant's thrilling kiss. Keble. A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys. Hawthorne. Conceit and grief an eager combat fight. Shak.

A curious fungus of the genus Geaster, in which the outer coating splits into the shape of a star, and the inner one forms a ball containing the dustlike spores.

urians mostly found in the deep sea. They are remarkable for their bilateral symmetry and curious forms. [Written also Elasmopoda.]

To cut or carve in a ornamental way. [Obs.] Entailed with curious antics. Spenser.

Eager to discover or learn; curious. [Obs.] Todd. -- Ex*quis"i*tive*ly, adv. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

Curiously shaped or constructed; as, she wore a fanciful headdress. Gather up all fancifullest shells. Keats.

pen or graver; a merely decorative figure. The neat characters and flourishes of a Bible curiously printed. Boyle.

To bear the expense of; to defray. [Obs.] The charge of my most curious and costly ingredients frayed, I shall acknowledge myself amply satisfied. Massinger.

A West African antelope (Tragelaphus scriptus), curiously marked with white stripes and spots on a reddish fawn ground, and hence called harnessed antelope; -- called also guiba.

an's hair. Blount. Hag moth (Zoöl.), a moth (Phobetron pithecium), the larva of which has curious side appendages, and feeds on fruit trees. -- Hag's tooth (Naut.), an ugly irregularity in the pattern of matting or pointing.

ted in our theaters. Johnson. Harlequin bat (Zoöl.), an Indian bat (Scotophilus ornatus), curiously variegated with white spots. -- Harlequin beetle (Zoöl.), a very large South American beetle (Acrocinus longimanus) having very long legs and antennæ. The elytra are curiously marked with red, black, and gray. -- Harle…

Shak. The painful husband, plowing up his ground. Hakewill. He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestic and field accommodations. Evelyn.

Proseeding from, pertaining to, or characterized by, genius or ingenuity; of curious design, structure, or mechanism; as, an ingenious model, or machine; an ingenious scheme, contrivance, etc. Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill. Cowper.

Curiousness, or cleverness in design or contrivance; as, the ingenuity of a plan, or of mechanism. He gives . . . To artist ingenuity and skill. Cowper.

Given to inquiry; disposed to investigate causes; curious; as, an inquiring mind.