- Curious
- Curious Cu"ri*ous (k?"r?-?s), a. [OF. curios, curius, F.
curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See
{Cure}.]
1. Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct;
careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Little curious in her clothes. --Fuller. [1913 Webster]
How shall we, If he be curious, work upon his faith? --Beau. & Fl. [1913 Webster]
2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed; elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill. [1913 Webster]
To devise curious works. --Ex. xxxv. 32 [1913 Webster]
His body couched in a curious bed. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; -- sometimes with after or of. [1913 Webster]
It is a pity a gentleman so very curious after things that were elegant and beautiful should not have been as curious as to their origin, their uses, and their natural history. --Woodward. [1913 Webster]
4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise; inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or plain; strange; rare. ``Acurious tale'' --Shak. [1913 Webster]
A multitude of curious analogies. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. --E. A. Poe. [1913 Webster]
Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of learning or sciense often bring to light curious results. --C. J. Smith. [1913 Webster]
{Curious arts}, magic. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
Many . . . which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them. --Acts xix. 19.
Syn: Inquisitive; prying. See {Inquisitive}. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
