Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CUR'TAIN-LEC-TURE, n.

Reproof given in bed by a wife to her husband. – Addison.

CUR'TAIN-LESS, a.

Having no curtain.

CURT'AL, a.

Short; abridged; brief. – Milton.

CURT'AL, n.

A horse with a docked tail. – B. Jonson.

CURT'ATE, a. [L. curtatus, from curto, to shorten.]

The curtate distance, in astronomy, is the distance of a planet from the sun to that point, where a perpendicular, let fall from the planet, meets with the ecliptic. – Encyc. Or the interval between the sun or earth, and that point where a perpendicular, let fall from the planet, meets the ecliptic. – Cyc.

CUR-TA'TION, n. [See Curtate.]

The interval between a planet's distance from the sun and the curtate distance. – Chambers.

CURT'I-LAGE, n.

In law, a yard, garden, inclosure, or field, near and belonging to a messuage. [This is probably from court, or the same radix.]

CURT'LY, adv.

Briefly. [Not in use.]

CURT'NESS, n.

Shortness.

CU'RULE, a. [L. curulis, from currus, a chariot.]

Belonging to a chariot. The curule chair or seat, among the Romans, was a stool without a back, covered with leather, and so made as to be folded. It was conveyed in a chariot, and used by public officers.

CURV'A-TED, a. [See Curve.]

Curved; bent in a regular form.

CURV-A'TION, n.

The act of bending or crooking.

CURV'A-TURE, n. [L. curvatura. See Curve.]

A bending in a regular form; crookedness, or the manner of bending; flexure by which a curve is formed. – Encyc.

CURVE, a. [curv; L. curvus, bent, crooked; curvo, to bend, turn, or wind; Fr. courbe, courber; It. curvo, curvare; Sp. curvo, corvar. If b is not radical, this word belongs to Class Gr. W. cor, a circle; but qu., for in Russ. it is krivei.]

Bending; crooked; inflected in a regular form, and forming part of a circle; as a curve line, which may be cut by a right line in more points than one. – Encyc. A curve line is that which is neither a straight line, DO: nor composed of straight lines. – Cyc.

CURVE, n.

A bending in a regular form, or without angles; that which is bent; a flexure; part of a circle. In Geometry, a line which may be cut by a right line in more points than one. – Encyc.

CURVE, v.t. [L. curvo; Fr. courber; Russ. krivlyu.]

To bend: to crook; to inflect.

CURV'ED, pp.

Bent; regularly inflected.

CURV'ET, n. [It. corvetta; Fr. courbette; Sp. corveta. See Curve.]

1. In the manege, a particular leap of a horse, when he raises both his fore legs at once, equally advanced, and as his fore legs are falling, he raises his hind legs, so that all his leg are raised at once. – Encyc.
2. A prank; a frolick.

CURV'ET, v.i. [It. corvettare; Fr. courbetter; Sp. corvetear.]

1. To leap; to bound; to spring and form a curvet.
2. To leap and frisk.

CURV'I-FORM, a.

Having the form of a curve.

CUR-VI-LIN'EAR, or CUR-VI-LIN'E-AL, a. [L. curvus, bent, and linea, a line.]

Having a curve line; consisting of curve lines; bounded by curve lines; as, a curvilinear figure.

CUR-VI-LIN-E-AR'I-TY, n.

The state of being curvilinear, or of consisting in curve lines. – Guth. Quinctilian, Pref.

CURV'ING, n.

A curve; a winding form.

CURV'ING, ppr.

Bending in a regular form; crooked.

CURV'I-TY, n. [L. curvitas.]

A bending in a regular form; crookedness. – Holder.