Curve

Definition of Curve

Pronunciation: kûrvd

Bent without angles; crooked; curved; as, a curve line; a curve surface.

A bending without angles; that which is bent; a flexure; as, a curve in a railway or canal.

(Geom.) A line described according to some low, and having no finite portion of it a straight line.

Axis of a curve
See under Axis.

Curve of quickest descent
See Brachystochrone.

Curve tracing
(Math.) the process of determining the shape, location, singular points, and other peculiarities of a curve from its equation.

Plane curve
(Geom.) a curve such that when a plane passes through three points of the curve, it passes through all the other points of the curve. Any other curve is called a curve of double curvature, or a twisted curve.

v. t.

To bend; to crook; as, to curve a line; to curve a pipe; to cause to swerve from a straight course; as, to curve a ball in pitching it.

[imp. & p. p. Curved (kûrvd); p. pr. & vb. n. Curving.]

v. i.

To bend or turn gradually from a given direction; as, the road curves to the right.

Related Words

aberrancy, aberration, arc, arch, artful dodge, artifice, bag of tricks, bear off, bend back, bias, blind, bluff, bosey, bow, bowl, branch off, branching off, cast, catacaustic, catch, catenary, caustic, change of pace, change the bearing, change-up, chicanery, chouse, chuck, chunk, circle, circuit, circuitousness, circumference, coil, compass, conchoid, corner, curl, curvation, curvature, curve-ball, declination, decurve, depart from, departure, design, detour, deviance, deviancy, deviate, deviation, device, deviousness, diacaustic, diffract, diffuse, digress, digression, dirty deal, dirty trick, discursion, disperse, distort, divagate, divagation, divaricate, divarication, diverge, divergence, diversion, divert, dodge, dogleg, dome, double, downcurve, drift, drifting, ellipse, embow, errantry, excursion, excursus, exorbitation, fast deal, fastball, feint, festoon, fetch, ficelle, flex, fling, flip, forward pass, gambit, gimmick, googly, hairpin, heave, heel, hocus-pocus, hook, hump, hunch, hurl, hyperbola, incurvate, incurvation, incurvature, incurve, indirection, inflect, inflection, joker, juggle, knuckleball, lateral, lateral pass, lituus, lob, loop, obliquity, outcurve, parabola, pass, peg, pererration, pitch, ploy, pull, put, rambling, recurve, reflect, reflex, refract, retroflex, rondure, round, ruse, sag, scatter, scheme, screwball, scurvy trick, serve, service, sheer, shift, shifting, shifting course, shifting path, shot-put, shy, sinker, sinus, skew, slant, sleight, sleight of hand, sleight-of-hand trick, slider, sling, spiral, spitball, spitter, stratagem, straying, subterfuge, swag, sweep, swerve, swerving, swinging, tack, throw, toss, tracery, trend, trick, turn aside, turning, twist, upcurve, variation, vary, vault, veer, wandering, warp, wile, wind, yaw, zigzag

Browse

Curtate
Curtate cycloid
Curtation
Curtein
Curtes
Curtesy
Curtilage
Curtly
Curtness
curtsey
Curule
Curule dignity
Cururo
curvaceous
Curval
Curvate
Curvation
Curvative
Curvature
Curvature of the spine
-Curve-
Curve of pursuit
Curve of quickest descent
Curve of sines
Curve tracing
curved
Curvedness
Curvet
Curvicaudate
Curvicostate
Curvidentate
Curviform
Curvilinead
Curvilineal
Curvilineal angle
Curvilinearity
Curvilinearly
Curvinerved
Curvirostral
Curvirostres
Curviserial

# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z