1.
[syn: curious, funny, odd, peculiar, queer, rum, rummy, singular]
2. eager to investigate and learn or learn more (sometimes about others' concerns);
- Example: "a curious child is a teacher's delight"
- Example: "a trap door that made me curious"
- Example: "curious investigators"
- Example: "traffic was slowed by curious rubberneckers"
- Example: "curious about the neighbor's doings"
3. having curiosity aroused; eagerly interested in learning more;
- Example: "a trap door that made me curious"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Curious \Cu"ri*ous\ (k?"r?-?s), a. [OF. curios, curius, F.
curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See
Cure.]
1. Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct;
careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Little curious in her clothes. --Fuller.
[1913 Webster]
How shall we,
If he be curious, work upon his faith? --Beau. & Fl.
[1913 Webster]
2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed;
elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill.
[1913 Webster]
To devise curious works. --Ex. xxxv. 32
[1913 Webster]
His body couched in a curious bed. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to
research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; --
sometimes with after or of.
[1913 Webster]
It is a pity a gentleman so very curious after
things that were elegant and beautiful should not
have been as curious as to their origin, their uses,
and their natural history. --Woodward.
[1913 Webster]
4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise;
inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or
plain; strange; rare. "Acurious tale" --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
A multitude of curious analogies. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.
--E. A. Poe.
[1913 Webster]
Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of
learning or sciense often bring to light curious
results. --C. J. Smith.
[1913 Webster]
Curious arts, magic. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Many . . . which used curious arts brought their
books together, and burned them. --Acts xix.
19.
Syn: Inquisitive; prying. See Inquisitive.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
curious
adj 1: beyond or deviating from the usual or expected; "a
curious hybrid accent"; "her speech has a funny twang";
"they have some funny ideas about war"; "had an odd
name"; "the peculiar aromatic odor of cloves"; "something
definitely queer about this town"; "what a rum fellow";
"singular behavior" [syn: curious, funny, odd,
peculiar, queer, rum, rummy, singular]
2: eager to investigate and learn or learn more (sometimes about
others' concerns); "a curious child is a teacher's delight";
"a trap door that made me curious"; "curious investigators";
"traffic was slowed by curious rubberneckers"; "curious about
the neighbor's doings" [ant: incurious]
3: having curiosity aroused; eagerly interested in learning
more; "a trap door that made me curious"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
112 Moby Thesaurus words for "curious":
aberrant, abnormal, absurd, agape, agog, all agog, analytical,
attentive, attracted, barmy, bizarre, burning with curiosity,
careful, catechistic, cathectic, cautious, circumspect, concerned,
considerate, consumed with curiosity, deviant, deviate, eccentric,
enthusiastic, erratic, examining, excited, exotic, extraordinary,
fascinated, freaked out, freakish, freaky, funny, ghoulish,
gossipy, grotesque, heedful, impertinent, inquiring, inquisitional,
inquisitive, inquisitorial, interested, interfering, intermeddling,
interrogational, interrogative, interrogatory, intrusive,
investigative, irregular, itchy, keen on, kinky, kooky, loving,
meddlesome, meddling, mindful, morbid, morbidly curious, nosy,
nuts, nutty, odd, oddball, off, off the wall, offbeat, open-eyed,
openmouthed, out, outlandish, outrageous, outre, overcurious,
passing strange, passionate, peculiar, piqued, pixilated, prurient,
prying, quaint, queer, querying, questioning, quizzical, quizzing,
regardful, scopophiliac, scrutinizing, searching, singular,
snooping, snoopy, solicitous, strange, supercurious, tantalized,
tender, thoughtful, tickled, titillated, turned-on, unconventional,
unearthly, unusual, voyeuristic, weird, wondrous strange