curious

  • 1Curious — 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… …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 2curious — 1 Curious, inquisitive, prying, snoopy, nosy are comparable when meaning interested in finding out or in a search for facts that are not one s personal concern. Curious need not imply objectionable qualities such as intrusiveness or impertinence …

    New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • 3curious — [kyoor′ē əs] adj. sometimes compar.curiouser: often in allusion to Lewis Carroll s Alice s Adventures in Wonderland [ME < OFr curios < L curiosus, careful, diligent, curious; akin to cura, care: see CURE] 1. eager to learn or know 2.… …

    English World dictionary

  • 4curious — [adj1] desiring knowledge, understanding analytical, disquisitive, examining, impertinent, inquiring, inquisitive, inspecting, interested, interfering, intrusive, investigative, meddlesome, meddling, nosy, peeping, peering, prurient, prying,… …

    New thesaurus

  • 5curious — index eccentric, extraordinary, inquisitive, noteworthy, prodigious (amazing), rare, remarkable, u …

    Law dictionary

  • 6curious — (adj.) mid 14c., eager to know (often in a bad sense), from O.Fr. curios solicitous, anxious, inquisitive; odd, strange (Mod.Fr. curieux) and directly from L. curiosus careful, diligent; inquiring eagerly, meddlesome, akin to cura care (see CURE… …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 7curious — ► ADJECTIVE 1) eager to know or learn something. 2) strange; unusual. DERIVATIVES curiously adverb. ORIGIN Latin curiosus careful , from cura care …

    English terms dictionary

  • 8curious — cu|ri|ous [ kjuriəs ] adjective ** 1. ) someone who is curious wants to find out about something: I didn t mean to pry. I m just curious. That s all. curious about: Children are curious about animals and how they live. curious to see/hear/know… …

    Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • 9curious */*/ — UK [ˈkjʊərɪəs] / US [ˈkjʊrɪəs] adjective 1) a) someone who is curious wants to find out about something I didn t mean to pry. I m just curious. That s all. curious about: Children are curious about animals and how they live. curious to… …

    English dictionary

  • 10curious — adj. eager to know 1) curious about (curious about smb. s past) 2) curious to + inf. (I would be curious to know what really happened) odd 3) curious that + clause (it is curious that she didn t remember the incident) * * * [ kjʊ(ə)rɪəs] curious… …

    Combinatory dictionary