CURIOUS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Curious

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/kjˈʊriəs/ Listen

adjective

Curious adj.

1.

Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. (Obs.) "Little curious in her clothes." "How shall we, If he be curious, work upon his faith?"

2.

Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed; elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill. "To devise curious works." "His body couched in a curious bed."

3.

Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; sometimes with after or of. "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."

4.

Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise; inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or plain; strange; rare. "Acurious tale" "A multitude of curious analogies." "Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore." "Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of learning or sciense often bring to light curious results."

Curious arts, magic. (Obs.) "Many... which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them."

Synonyms: Inquisitive; prying. See Inquisitive.

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Etymology of 'Curious'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Curious" Quotes from Famous Books

... love Mr. McMaster as much as they admired his zeal. He was in many ways a quaint, curious character. His body seemed so small and insignificant, and his spirit so mighty. He knew neither fear nor despair in the prosecution of his chosen work, and it was impossible to be associated with him without being infected by his unquenchable ardour. For some time no special incident ...

— Bert Lloyd's Boyhood - A Story from Nova Scotia • J. McDonald Oxley

... curiously named and obscurely defined. There is apparently a causal body which is possibly the vehicle of will and, more involved still, a super-spiritual body which is the reality of God deep within us, and the carrier and vehicle of our supreme and enduring personal values. All this is a curious enough mingling of psychology, a subtle materialism, and unbounded speculation; it is equally beyond proof and denial, though for the proof of it the theosophist offers the testimony of those whose ...

— Modern Religious Cults and Movements • Gaius Glenn Atkins

... first greetings had been passed with our friends, every man was curious to learn the particulars of General Smith's march through Southeastern Kentucky, and of the fight at Richmond. General Smith had collected at Knoxville, and other points in East Tennessee, some twenty thousand men, and leaving eight thousand, under General Stephenson, in front of Cumberland ...

— History of Morgan's Cavalry • Basil W. Duke

... answered gallantly. 'Your voice never speaks harsh judgmentsthough I am afraid the truth about myself would be less than flattering. What is it, Mrs. Rollo? I am curious. It is said, ...

— The Gold of Chickaree • Susan Warner

... that I made signs to them to come to the shore, they took heart and came, and began to search for the creature. I found him by his blood staining the water; and by the help of a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the negroes to haul, they dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curious leopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the negroes held up their hands with admiration, to think what it was ...

— Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe

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