CURVE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Curve

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/kərv/ Listen

noun

Curve n.

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.

verb

Curve v. t. (past & past part. curved; pres. part. curving) 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.

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

adjective

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

See images of 'Curve'

Etymology of 'Curve'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Curve" Quotes from Famous Books

... Breathing the letter, and not the spirit, of the commodore's orders, the captains of these ships luffed at the same time as those which preceded them. Hence it resulted that the French line formed a curve (B), whose extremities were represented in the van by the 'Artesien' and 'Vengeur,' and in the rear by the 'Bizarre,' 'Ajax,' and 'Severe.' In consequence, these ships were very far from those which corresponded to ...

— The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 • A. T. Mahan

... could not be always. It came to an end one January afternoon, when he had returned from a second absence in Liverpool. They were walking up Richmond Hill. The sun had set frostily and red over the silver curve of the Thames, and Venus, large and bright, was shining like a great eye in the western sky. Hilary long remembered exactly how every thing looked, even to the very tree they stood under, when Robert Lyon asked ...

— Mistress and Maid • Dinah Craik (aka: Miss Mulock)

... that was plain; his face was bronzed and weather-beaten, as if he often encountered rough weather. But his deep-set eyes had a steadfast, quiet power in them, and his mouth, although it was almost hidden by hair, had a pleasant curve about it. I could not guess how old he was; he looked a middle-aged man to me. His great, rough hands, which had never worn gloves, were stained and hard with labor; and he had evidently been taking a share ...

— The Doctor's Dilemma • Hesba Stretton

... away all my vanity clothes. No need for them in Hiroshima and in an icy room on a winter's morning, I do not stop to think whether my dress has an in-curve or an out-sweep. I fall into the first thing I find and finish buttoning it when the family fire in the dining-room is reached. A solitary warming-spot to a big house is one of ...

— The Lady and Sada San - A Sequel to The Lady of the Decoration • Frances Little

... still more determined curve. "When any suspicious paper is found in my possession, it will be time enough then for me to explain ...

— The Leavenworth Case • Anna Katharine Green

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