curve

CEFRB1

/kɜːv/

noun · verb · adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
A smoothly bending line or surface.
02
verb
To bend in a rounded shape.

Examples

He admired the delicate curve of her ear.
The boy knows how to throw a curve.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 3
Citations: 5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

A gentle bend, such as in a road.
A simple figure containing no straight portions and no angles; a curved line.

adjective

Extra meaning

Bent without angles; crooked; curved.

More examples

In context

The curve extends from point A to point B.
You should slow down when approaching a curve.
a curve line

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

A sharp blank in the road caused the driver to slow down.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

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.
1877, John Joseph Henry, Account of Arnold's Campaign Against Quebec, J. Munsell, page 171
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.
1993, Sharad Singh Negi, Kumaun: The Land and the People, page 106
AROUND six years ago, Hyundai figured a 10-year warranty was not enough to attract shoppers and conjured up daring design for more attention. Sonata was the first to get the Fluidic Sculpture makeover, but the fifth-generation Elantra ended up being the swoopiest of the fleet. Hyundai’s newest gamble? Toning down those curves. […] Laugh at that detail now — you won’t when the sun is blinding you at 75 miles an hour on a curve.
2016 April 28, Tom Voelk, “Video Review: Hyundai Elantra Offers Fewer Curves, but a Better Ride”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Nov 2020
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])
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
[…] 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; […]
1866, The Missouri Yearbook of Agriculture: Annual Report, Missouri. State Board of Agriculture, page 31

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Origin

noun

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.

Deep Dive

noun

adjective

More examples

Quick test

A sharp blank— in the road caused the driver to slow down.

Nearby

Origin

noun

A sharp blank in the road caused the driver to slow down.