CURDLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does curdle mean? 

• CURDLE (verb)
  The verb CURDLE has 3 senses:

1. turn into curds

2. go bad or sour

3. turn from a liquid to a solid mass

  Familiarity information: CURDLE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CURDLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they curdle    ... he / she / it curdles   
Past simple: curdled   
Past participle: curdled   
-ing form: curdling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Turn into curds

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

clabber; clot; curdle

Context example:

curdled milk

Hypernyms (to "curdle" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something ----s something

Antonym:

homogenise (become homogeneous or similar, as by mixing)

homogenise; homogenize (break up the fat globules of)

Derivation:

curdling (the process of forming semisolid lumps in a liquid)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Go bad or sour

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The milk curdled

Hypernyms (to "curdle" is one way to...):

go bad; spoil (become unfit for consumption or use)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

curdling (the process of forming semisolid lumps in a liquid)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Turn from a liquid to a solid mass

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

his blood curdled

Hypernyms (to "curdle" is one way to...):

clot; coagulate (change from a liquid to a thickened or solid state)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

curdling (the process of forming semisolid lumps in a liquid)

 Context examples 

I heard a great infuriated bellow go up from Wolf Larsen, and from Leach a snarling that was desperate and blood-curdling.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When massive stars explode as supernovae, they leave behind a curdled web of hot gas and dust, known as a supernova remnant.

(Dead Star Circled by Light, ESO)

The Thing in the coffin writhed; and a hideous, blood-curdling screech came from the opened red lips.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

White Fang, near the corner of the cabin and forty feet away, was snarling with blood-curdling viciousness, not at Scott, but at the dog- musher.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Issue associated with the undesired characterization of congealing, solidifying, thickening, curdling.

(Coagulation in Medical Device, Food and Drug Administration)

You have read this strange and terrific story, Margaret; and do you not feel your blood congeal with horror, like that which even now curdles mine?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as historical in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer wonder tales in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

When I think of the thing which flew at my throat this morning, hanging its black and scarlet visage over the nest of my dove, my blood curdles—"And what, sir," I asked, while he paused, "did you do when you had settled her here? Where did you go?"

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This it was, I am certain,—the most indescribable of blood-curdling sounds,—that threw me into a panic.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A stranger could not hear this note, and to such a stranger the growling of White Fang was an exhibition of primordial savagery, nerve-racking and blood-curdling.

(White Fang, by Jack London)