Curl | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Curl, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. CURLED; p. pr. & vb. n. CURLING.] [D. krullen, Dan. krölle, Icel. krulla, to curl, to crisp.]

Sense 1. To twist or form into ringlets; to crisp, as the hair.

But curl their locks with bodkins and with braid. Gascoigne.

Sense 2. To twist or make into coils, as a serpent.

Of his tortuous train, Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve. Milton.

Sense 3. To deck as with curls; to ornament.

The snaky locks That curled Megaera. Milton.

Curling with metaphors a plain intention. Herbert.

Sense 4. To raise in waves or undulations; to ripple.

Seas would be pools without the brushing air To curl the waves. Dryden.

Curl, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To contract or bend into curls or ringlets, as hair. Thou seest it [hair] will not curl by nature. Shak. 2. To move in curves, spirals, or undulations; to contract in curving outlines; to bend in a curved form; to shrink; to writhe. Curling billows roll their restless tides. Dryden. Curling smokes from village tops are seen. Pope. Gayly curl the waves before each dashing prow. Byron. 3. To play at the game called curling. [Scot.]

Cŭrl, n.

noun

n. [D. krul, Dan. krölle. See supra.]

Sense 1. A ringlet, especially of hair, or any thing of a like form.

*Under a coronet, his flowing hair In curls on either cheek played. Milton.*

Sense 2. An undulating or curving line in any substance, as wood, glass, and the like; flexure; sinuosity.

If the glass of the prisms . . . be without those numberless waves or curls which usually arise from the sand-holes. Newton.

Sense 3. A disease in potatoes, in which the leaves, at their first appearance, seem curled and shrunk up.