1 a line or surface that bends gradually; a smooth bend:
the delicate curve of her ear * a pattern of straight lines and curves * (especially AmE) a curve in the road * (especially AmE) The driver lost control on a curve and the vehicle hit a tree. * to plot a curve on a graph * (technical) the unemployment-income curve (= a line on a GRAPH showing the relationship between the number of unemployed people and national income)
seealsoLEARNINGCURVE
2 (also curve ball) (AmE) (in the game of baseball) a ball that moves in a curve when it is thrown to the BATTER: (figurative) One of the journalists threw the senator a curve (= surprised him by asking a difficult question).
verb [usually +adv./prep.] to move or make sth move in the shape of a curve; to be in the shape of a curve: [V] The road curved around the bay. * The ball curved through the air. * His lips curved in a smile. [also VN]
Rate this entry
About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for curve is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is curve a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, curve is tagged as noun.
Does curve appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — curve appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
