CURLING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does curling mean? 

• CURLING (noun)
  The noun CURLING has 1 sense:

1. a game played on ice in which heavy stones with handles are slid toward a target

  Familiarity information: CURLING used as a noun is very rare.

• CURLING (adjective)
  The adjective CURLING has 1 sense:

1. (of hair) making curls or having been made to curl

  Familiarity information: CURLING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CURLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A game played on ice in which heavy stones with handles are slid toward a target

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("curling" is a kind of...):

game (a contest with rules to determine a winner)

Domain region:

Scotland (one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; located on the northern part of the island of Great Britain; famous for bagpipes and plaids and kilts)

Derivation:

curl (play the Scottish game of curling)

• CURLING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of hair) making curls or having been made to curl

Synonyms:

curled; curling

Similar:

curly ((of hair) having curls or waves)

 Context examples 

A curling wave struck the side and splashed salt spray on my lips.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A musical little voice answered, from somewhere upstairs, “I am coming, grandfather!” and a pretty little girl with long, flaxen, curling hair, soon came running into the shop.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I wish you could see him; he is very tall of his age, with sweet laughing blue eyes, dark eyelashes, and curling hair.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

At the farther end of this forest clearing there stood forty or fifty huts, built very neatly from wood and clay, with the blue smoke curling out from the roofs.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Their most trivial action may mean volumes, or their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin or a curling tongs.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Ah! you are afraid of yourself," he said, curling his lip.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A regular snow maiden, with blue eyes, and yellow hair curling on her shoulders, pale and slender, and always carrying herself like a young lady mindful of her manners.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

This time the sea looked a dark grey colour, and was overspread with curling waves and the ridges of foam.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Standing on the rug between us, with his slight, tall figure, his sharp features, thoughtful face, and curling hair prematurely tinged with grey, he seemed to represent that not too common type, a nobleman who is in truth noble.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He glanced at the hand that held the brand, noticing the cunning delicacy of the fingers that gripped it, how they adjusted themselves to all the inequalities of the surface, curling over and under and about the rough wood, and one little finger, too close to the burning portion of the brand, sensitively and automatically writhing back from the hurtful heat to a cooler gripping-place; and in the same instant he seemed to see a vision of those same sensitive and delicate fingers being crushed and torn by the white teeth of the she-wolf.

(White Fang, by Jack London)