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Bent without angles; crooked; curved; as, a curve line; a curve surface.

The state of being curved.

To make a curvet; to leap; to bound. 'Oft and high he did curvet." Drayton.

A modification of the aëroplane, having curved surfaces, the advantages of which were first demonstrated by Lilienthal.

To bend; to curve; to make crooked.

Bending gradually toward the axis or center, as branches or petals.

To curve in an opposite or unusual direction; to bend back or down.

Curved in an opposite or uncommon direction; bent back; as, a bird with a recurved bill; flowers with recurved petals.

deviation from truth, rectitude, etc. Aberrancy of curvature (Geom.), the deviation of a curve from a circular form.

One of the elements of reference by which a point, as of a curve, is referred to a system of fixed rectilineal coördinate axes.

e. See Ablative absolute, under Ablative. Absolute curvature (Geom.), that curvature of a curve of double curvature, which is measured in the osculating plane of the curve. -- Absolute equation (Astron.), the sum of the optic and eccentric equations. -- Absolute space (Physics), space considered without relation to m…

A group of intestinal worms, having the proboscis armed with recurved spines.

The order that includes rapacious birds. They have a hooked bill, and sharp, strongly curved talons. There are three families, represented by the vultures, the falcons or hawks, and the owls.

An isolated point not upon a curve, but whose coördinates satisfy the equation of the curve so that it is considered as belonging to the curve.

Not giving out or receiving heat. -- Ad`i*a*bat`ic*al*ly, adv. Adiabatic line or curve, a curve exhibiting the variations of pressure and volume of a fluid when it expands without either receiving or giving out heat. Rankine.

Curved inwards; hooked.

or deduced from such operation; as, algebraic characters; algebraical writings. Algebraic curve, a curve such that the equation which expresses the relation between the coördinates of its points involves only the ordinary operations of algebra; -- opposed to a transcendental curve.

A curved wooden horn about three feet long, with a cupped mouthpiece and a bell, used by the Swiss to sound the ranz des vaches and other melodies. Its notes are open harmonics of the tube.

Produced by the refraction of light, as seen through water; as, anaclastic curves.

A secondary notch in the pulse curve, obtained in a sphygmographic tracing.