Search the Dictionary

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.

To fixx the eyes in a steady and earnest look; to look with eagerness or curiosity, as in admiration, astonishment, or with studious attention. Why stand ye gazing up into heaven Acts i. 11.

A person or thing gazed at with scorn or abhorrence; an object of curiosity or contempt. Bp. Hall.

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.

A mania or infatuation for icons, whether as objects of devotion, bric-a-brac, or curios.

citous; overpressing in request or demand; urgent; teasing; as, an impotunate petitioner, curiosity. Whewell.

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.

Given to examination, investigation, or research; searching; curious. A young, inquisitive, and sprightly genius. I. Watts.

ality or state of being inquisitive; the disposition to seek explanation and information; curiosity to learn what is unknown; esp., uncontrolled and impertinent curiosity. Mr. Boswell, whose inquisitiveness is seconded by great activity, scrambled in at a high window. Johnson. Curiosity in children nature has provided,…

Engaging the attention; exciting, or adapted to excite, interest, curiosity, or emotion; as, an interesting story; interesting news. Cowper.

Given to investigation; inquisitive; curious; searching.

A curious South American bird (Anhima, or Palamedea, cornuta), often domesticated by the natives and kept with poultry, which it defends against birds of prey. It has a long, slender, hornlike ornament on its head, and two sharp spurs on each wing. Although its beak, feet, and legs resemble those of gallinaceous birds,…

, etc. "Garden knots." Bacon. Flowers worthy of paradise, which, not nice art In beds and curious knots, but nature boon Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain. Milton.

Having intersecting lines or figures. The west corner of thy curious knotted garden. Shak.