Curl \Curl\, v. i.
   1. To contract or bend into curls or ringlets, as hair; to
      grow in curls or spirals, as a vine; to be crinkled or
      contorted; to have a curly appearance; as, leaves lie
      curled on the ground.
      [1913 Webster]

            Thou seest it [hair] will not curl by nature.
                                                  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To move in curves, spirals, or undulations; to contract in
      curving outlines; to bend in a curved form; to make a curl
      or curls. "Cirling billows." --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

            Then round her slender waist he curled. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

            Curling smokes from village tops are seen. --Pope.
      [1913 Webster]

            Gayly curl the waves before each dashing prow.
                                                  --Byron.
      [1913 Webster]

            He smiled a king of sickly smile, and curled up on
            the floor.                            --Bret Harte.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To play at the game called curling. [Scot.]
      [1913 Webster]

	

	Curl \Curl\ (k[^u]rl), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Curled (k[^u]rld);
   p. pr. & vb. n. Curling.] [Akin to D. krullen, Dan.
   kr["o]lle, dial. Sw. krulla to curl, crisp; possibly akin to
   E. crook. Cf. Curl, n., Cruller.]
   1. To twist or form into ringlets; to crisp, as the hair.
      [1913 Webster]

            But curl their locks with bodkins and with braid.
                                                  --Cascoigne.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To twist or make onto coils, as a serpent's body.
      [1913 Webster]

            Of his tortuous train,
            Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve.
                                                  --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To deck with, or as with, curls; to ornament.
      [1913 Webster]

            Thicker than the snaky locks
            That curledMeg[ae]ra.                 --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            Curling with metaphors a plain intention. --Herbert.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. To raise in waves or undulations; to ripple.
      [1913 Webster]

            Seas would be pools without the brushing air
            To curl the waves.                    --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. (Hat Making) To shape (the brim) into a curve.
      [1913 Webster]

	

	Curl \Curl\ (k[^u]rl), n. [Akin to D. krul, Dan. kr["o]lle. See
   Curl, v. ]
   1. A ringlet, especially of hair; anything of a spiral or
      winding form.
      [1913 Webster]

            Under a coronet, his flowing hair
            In curls on either cheek played.      --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. An undulating or waving line or streak in any substance,
      as wood, glass, etc.; flexure; sinuosity.
      [1913 Webster]

            If the glass of the prisms . . . be without those
            numberless waves or curls which usually arise from
            the sand holes.                       --Sir I.
                                                  Newton.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A disease in potatoes, in which the leaves, at their first
      appearance, seem curled and shrunken.
      [1913 Webster]

   Blue curls. (Bot.) See under Blue.
      [1913 Webster]

	

	curl
    n 1: a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles (as
         formed by leaves or flower petals) [syn: coil, whorl,
         roll, curl, curlicue, ringlet, gyre, scroll]
    2: American chemist who with Richard Smalley and Harold Kroto
       discovered fullerenes and opened a new branch of chemistry
       (born in 1933) [syn: Curl, Robert Curl, Robert F. Curl,
       Robert Floyd Curl Jr.]
    3: a strand or cluster of hair [syn: lock, curl, ringlet,
       whorl]
    v 1: form a curl, curve, or kink; "the cigar smoke curled up at
         the ceiling" [syn: curl, curve, kink]
    2: shape one's body into a curl; "She curled farther down under
       the covers"; "She fell and drew in" [syn: curl up, curl,
       draw in]
    3: wind around something in coils or loops [syn: coil, loop,
       curl] [ant: uncoil]
    4: twist or roll into coils or ringlets; "curl my hair, please"
       [syn: curl, wave]
    5: play the Scottish game of curling

	

	75 Moby Thesaurus words for "curl":
   arc, arch, bend, bend back, bow, catacaustic, catenary, caustic,
   circle, cirrus, coil, conchoid, corkscrew, crimp, crisp, crook,
   curlicue, curve, decurve, deflect, diacaustic, dome, ellipse,
   embow, entwine, evolute, festoon, flex, frizz, frizzle, gyre,
   helix, hook, hump, hunch, hyperbola, incurvate, incurve, inflect,
   involute, kink, lituus, lock, loop, parabola, ponytail, recurve,
   reflect, reflex, retroflex, ringlet, roll, round, sag, screw,
   scroll, sinus, spiral, swag, sweep, swirl, tendril, tracery, turn,
   twine, twirl, twist, vault, volute, volution, vortex, whirl, whorl,
   wind, wreathe