# curlies

Pronunciation: say "KUR-leez" US /ˈkɝliz/, UK /ˈkɜːliz/

## Noun

1. Coiled, springy locks of hair that twist into curls rather than falling straight.
   - Simple: Tight, twisting locks of hair that coil instead of lying flat.
   - _The humidity turned her smooth blowout back into a mass of curlies._
   - _He ran a comb through his curlies and gave up almost immediately._
2. A slang term for the hair that grows around a person's genitals. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Hair that grows around the private parts of the body.
   - _The nurse explained that the curlies would need to be shaved before the procedure._
   - _Locker-room talk soon drifted to jokes about graying curlies._
3. The bracket symbols { and }, used to group statements in code or elements in a set. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: The curved bracket signs { and } used in writing and computer code.
   - _The linter flagged a block where the curlies didn't match up._
   - _She wrapped the loop body in curlies to keep both statements together._
4. Quotation marks with a curved, directional shape that differ from the upright marks produced by a typewriter. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: The curved quotation marks that look like little sixes and nines.
   - _The typesetter insisted on curlies throughout the printed edition._
   - _A quick search-and-replace swapped the straight quotation marks around every line of dialogue for curlies._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/curlies (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).