Wiktionary

curve

See also: curvé

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology

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Attested since the 1690s, from Latin curvus (“bent, curved”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, curve, turn”) + *-wós. Doublet of curb, shrink, carcer, and cancer.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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curve

  1. (obsolete) Bent without angles; crooked; curved.
    a curve line
    a curve surface

Translations

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Noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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curve (plural curves)

  1. A gentle bend, such as in a road.
    You should slow down when approaching a curve.
    • 1877, John Joseph Henry, Account of Arnold's Campaign Against Quebec‎[1], J. Munsell, page 171:
      But when we reflect that across the road at the centre of the arc of each curve there was a barricade, and cannon placed to rake the' intervals between the different barricades, the difficulties of the ascent, which is very steep, would be increased even to insurmountability.
    • 1993, Sharad Singh Negi, Kumaun: The Land and the People‎[2], page 106:
      In appearance, the bharal resembles both a sheep and a goat. Its horns are smooth, rounded and form a curve backwards over the neck. The fur is brownish grey in colour which attains a slaty grey hue in winter and becomes browner in summer. In Kumaun the bharal is found in the desolate tracts of northern Pithoragarh, usually on the slopes of the main Himalayan range where it lives between the timberline and the snowline.
  2. A simple figure containing no straight portions and no angles; a curved line.
    She scribbled a curve on the paper.
    • 2001 April, Samuel R. Buss, Jay P Fillmore, “Spherical averages and applications to spherical splines and interpolation”, in ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), volume 20, number 2:
      However, it should be possible to give more sophisticated spherical spline curves based on the de Castaljau method that are computed using multiple slerps between pairs of points and which work well for arbitrary knot positions (indeed, knot insertion methods for spline curves should suffice for this, cf Farin [1993])
  3. A grading system based on the scale of performance of a group used to normalize a right-skewed grade distribution (with more lower scores) into a bell curve, so that more can receive higher grades, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject.
    The teacher was nice and graded the test on a curve.
  4. (analytic geometry) A continuous map from a one-dimensional space to a multidimensional space.
  5. (geometry) A one-dimensional figure of non-zero length; the graph of a continuous map from a one-dimensional space.
  6. (algebraic geometry) An algebraic curve; a polynomial relation of the planar coordinates.
  7. (topology) A one-dimensional continuum.
  8. (informal, usually in the plural) The attractive shape of a woman's body.

Derived terms

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terms derived from curve (noun)

Translations

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informal: usually in plural: attractive features of a woman or informal: attractive shape of a woman's body

Verb

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curve (third-person singular simple present curves, present participle curving, simple past and past participle curved)

  1. (transitive) To bend; to crook.
    to curve a line
    to curve a pipe
  2. (transitive) To cause to swerve from a straight course.
    to curve a ball in pitching it
  3. (intransitive) To bend or turn gradually from a given direction.
    the road curves to the right
    • 1866, The Missouri Yearbook of Agriculture: Annual Report, Missouri. State Board of Agriculture, page 31:
      […] the shoulders not too wide above, bowing outward from the top to the breast; the back flat from shoulder to tail; the ribs extending horizontally and backwards, and then curving down barrelwise; […]
    • 1982, Sherrell J. Aston, Albert Hornblass, Murray A. Meltzer, et al., editors, Third International Symposium of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery of the Eye and Adnexa, Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins Co., →ISBN, page 116:
      Even without mobilization of the bone, the median eyelid angle can be deplaced in the nasal direction. For this purpose, we inserted a heart-shaped cartilage implant, curved toward the caruncula.
  4. (transitive) To grade on a curve (bell curve of a normal distribution).
    The teacher will curve the test.
  5. (transitive) (slang) To reject, to turn down romantic advances.
    I was once curved three times by the same woman.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Anagrams

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Chinese

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Etymology

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From English curve (“grading system”).

Pronunciation

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  • (Alternative pronunciation): IPA(key): /kʰœːf⁵⁵/

    • Noun

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    curve (Hong Kong Cantonese)

    1. curve (grading system) (Classifier: 條／条 c)
    2. (by extension) standards (something used as a measure for comparison) (Classifier: 條／条 c)

    Derived terms

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    Dutch

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    Etymology

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    Borrowed from Latin curvus (“bent, curved”).

    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /ˈkʏr.və/
    • Audio:(file)
    • Hyphenation: cur‧ve

    Noun

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    curve f (plural curven or curves, diminutive curvetje n)

    1. curve: curved line
      Synonym: kromme

    Derived terms

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    Galician

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    Verb

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    curve

    1. inflection of curvar:
      1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
      2. third-person singular imperative

    Italian

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    Adjective

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    curve

    1. feminine plural of curvo

    Noun

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    curve f

    1. plural of curva

    Latin

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    Pronunciation

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    Adjective

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    curve

    1. vocative masculine singular of curvus

    Portuguese

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    Verb

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    curve

    1. inflection of curvar:
      1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
      2. third-person singular imperative

    Romanian

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    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    curve f

    1. plural of curvă

    Spanish

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    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /ˈkuɾbe/ [ˈkuɾ.β̞e]
    • Rhymes: -uɾbe
    • Syllabification: cur‧ve

    Verb

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    curve

    1. inflection of curvar:
      1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
      2. third-person singular imperative
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=curve&oldid=83056915"
      NODES
    INTERN 1
    Note 1
    Verify 1