curve

SayKURV/kɚv/UK · AUS/kɜːv/

14 meanings of curve

1
nouncountable
A gentle bend, such as in a road or river.
The highway follows a long curve around the lake.
Engineers banked the curve so trains could take it at speed.
Similarbend, turn
2
nouncountable
A simple figure made of a line that bends throughout, with no straight portions and no angles.
The designer sketched a flowing curve across the logo.
Each letter in the font is built from delicate curves.
Similararc
3
verbtransitive
To bend something, shaping it into a rounded or hooked form.
The blacksmith curved the iron rod over an anvil.
Potters curve the clay walls outward as the wheel spins.
Similarbend, arch, bow
Oppositestraighten
4
verbintransitive
To follow a path or take a shape that gradually changes direction.
Mountain trails often curve toward the valley floor.
The comet's path curved as it neared the sun.
Similarbend, turn, veer, swing, wind
5
verbtransitive
To cause something to swerve away from a straight course.
Skilled players curve the ball to bend it past the wall.
The striker curved the free kick into the top corner.
Similarbend, swerve
6
nouncolloquialcountable
The pleasing, curving lines of a woman's figure.
The gown was tailored to flatter her curves.
He admired the gentle curve of her waist.
Note
Usually plural in this sense: clothes are said to flatter someone's curves. The singular picks out one line of the figure, such as the curve of a waist. The word is informal and centers on looks. It suits fashion writing and casual compliments, but not neutral description of a person.
7
nouncountable
A grading method that adjusts a group's scores against each other, reshaping a cluster of low marks into a bell-shaped spread so more students receive higher grades.
The professor applied a curve after the exam proved unexpectedly hard.
Students complained that the curve rewarded the class's weakest performances.
Note
Most often heard in one set phrase: a test is graded on a curve, usually by a teacher being kind to a struggling class. The image comes from the bell curve of statistics, because scores are measured against the group rather than a fixed standard. The noun has a one-word partner, the verb "to curve a test", which means the same thing.
8
verbtransitive
To adjust a set of grades according to a bell curve, raising or lowering scores relative to the group's overall performance.
The department chose to curve the results when the average fell too low.
Professors who curve their exams reward relative rather than absolute performance.
Similarscale, adjust, normalize
Note
The verb form of grading on a curve. Teachers curve a test, an exam or a set of results, so the object is the work being scored. Because the practice exists to lift a low-scoring group, saying a test will be curved is usually good news for the class.
9
nouncountable
A one-dimensional figure with length but no width, formed as the graph of a continuous map from a one-dimensional space.
The students plotted the curve defined by the equation.
Smooth curves can be described by parametric equations.
Note
Here the curve is the trace rather than the motion: the set of points itself. It must have some length, so a single point does not qualify. This is what a graph shows when a continuous map from a line is drawn. It is also the meaning students use when they plot a curve from an equation. Compare the map itself, where the motion is what counts.
10
nouncountable
A continuous map that sends each point of a one-dimensional space to a point in a multidimensional space.
Topologists treat the curve as a map rather than as the set of points it covers.
Two different curves can sweep out exactly the same set of points.
Note
Analytic geometry treats the curve as the map itself, not the path it leaves behind. Think of it as a point's motion, with a position given for every moment. Two different maps can trace exactly the same set of points, for instance by going around a circle once or twice. Here they count as two distinct curves. The figure sense keeps only the trace.

11
nouncountable
A figure in the plane defined by a polynomial relation between the coordinates; an algebraic curve.
The cubic equation defines a curve with a single loop.
Elliptic curves play a central role in modern number theory.
Note
Algebraic geometry narrows the word to figures defined by polynomials: all the points (x, y) where a polynomial in the two coordinates equals zero. Conics are the simplest examples. Elliptic curves, central to number theory, are the most famous. In this field "curve" alone usually means an algebraic one, and its properties are read from the polynomial that defines it.
12
nouncountable
A one-dimensional continuum, that is, a connected compact space with a single dimension.
In point-set topology, an arc is a basic example of a curve.
Certain curves studied in topology are nowhere smooth.
Note
Topology strips the idea down to its barest form. A curve is any continuum, meaning a compact, connected space, whose dimension is one. Nothing requires it to be smooth or even drawable. As a result, the class includes tangled, nowhere-smooth spaces far stranger than a gently bending line. An arc is the tamest example.
13
verbtransitive
To reject someone's romantic advances; to turn a person down.
He kept flirting even after she curved him twice.
They curve anyone who slides into their messages with a corny line.
Similarreject, rebuff, snub
Note
Slang from dating talk, meaning to turn aside someone's advances. It is often used in the passive, putting the rejected person at the center: I was once curved three times by the same woman. It belongs to casual speech and messaging, and it sounds out of place in writing that needs a neutral tone.
14
adjectiveobsolete
Bent without angles; crooked or curved in form.
The mapmaker traced a curve path along the coastline.
His walking stick ended in a curve handle.
Note
An adjective that has dropped out of use. The word came into English in the 1690s from Latin curvus, "bent, curved", from an ancient root meaning "to bend, turn". That same root also lies behind curb, shrink and cancer. The adjective stood before its noun, as in a curve line or a curve surface. In modern English it is obsolete; use curved instead.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of curve apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Attested since the 1690s, it comes from Latin curvus ("bent, curved"), which traces back to the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)ker- ("to bend, curve, turn"). It is a doublet of curb, shrink, carcer, and cancer.