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curve
[ kurv ]
noun
- a continuously bending line, without angles.
- the act or extent of curving.
- any curved outline, form, thing, or part.
- a curved section of a road, path, hallway, etc.
- Railroads. a curved section of track: in the U.S. the curve is often expressed as the central angle, measured in degrees, of a curved section of track subtended by a chord 100 feet (30 meters) long degree of curve.
- Baseball.
- the path followed by a ball pitched as a curveball:
The curve on that ball was nasty!
- a graphic representation of the variations effected in something by the influence of changing conditions; graph.
- Mathematics. a collection of points whose coordinates are continuous functions of a single independent variable.
- Education. a grading system based on the scale of performance, so that those performing better relative to others in the group, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject, receive high grades: Compare absolute ( def 10 ).
The new English professor grades on a curve.
- a curved guide used in drafting.
verb (used with object)
- to bend in a curve; cause to take the course of a curve.
- to grade on a curve.
verb (used without object)
- to bend in a curve; take the course of a curve.
- Baseball. to pitch a curveball:
After two forkballs, Stewart curved to Hernandez for a called strike.
adjective
- having the shape of a curve; curved.
curve
/ ˈkɜːvɪdlɪ; kɜːv /
noun
- a continuously bending line that has no straight parts
- something that curves or is curved, such as a bend in a road or the contour of a woman's body
- the act or extent of curving; curvature
- maths
- a system of points whose coordinates satisfy a given equation; a locus of points
- the graph of a function with one independent variable
- a line representing data, esp statistical data, on a graph
an unemployment curve
- ahead of the curveahead of the times; ahead of schedule
- behind the curvebehind the times; behind schedule
- short for French curve
verb
- to take or cause to take the shape or path of a curve; bend
curve
- A line or surface that bends in a smooth, continuous way without sharp angles.
- The graph of a function on a coordinate plane. In this technical sense, straight lines, circles, and waves are all curves.
Derived Forms
- ˈܰԱ, noun
- ˈܰ, adjective
- curvedly, adverb
Other Word Forms
- ܰ·· [kur, -vid-lee], adverb
- ܰ··Ա noun
- ܰ· adjective
- ܲ·ܰ adjective
- ܲ·ܰ·Բ adjective
- ܲ··ܰ noun
- ܲ··ܰ verb (used without object) undercurved undercurving
- well-curved adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of curve1
Word History and Origins
Origin of curve1
Idioms and Phrases
- ahead of / behind the curve, at the forefront of (or lagging behind) recent developments, trends, etc.
- throw (someone) a curve,
- to take (someone) by surprise, especially in a negative way.
- to mislead or deceive.
- flatten the curve. flatten the curve.
More idioms and phrases containing curve
see throw a curve .Example Sentences
Ninian admits that they have been on "a steep learning curve" - but says the challenges have been outweighed by the thrill.
Over drinks in a curved booth at the Polo Lounge on a March afternoon, the Gilroy brothers reminisced about the roundabout way they all wound up in the family business: Hollywood.
Iwai, who played alongside her identical twin sister, Chisato, on Saturday, curved a last-chance shot from behind a tree to try and cut into the lead to set up her birdie putt.
Once inside, trucks lumbered up a long, curving road into the hills.
On this night, though, Yamamoto snapped off a flurry of big-bending curves to the Rangers.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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