curious

adj

1. Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying.

   “Young children are naturally curious about the world and everything in it.”

   “I was ſo curious likewiſe as to goe to the place, where it is ſaid the great tower of Babel was built, being about halfe a days iourney diſtant; where I ſawe nothing but a high mountaine of earth in the midſt of a plaine where in digging you may finde certaine bricks, whereof it is ſaide the tower is built.”

   “I shall quit your vessel on the ice raft which brought me thither and shall seek the most northern extremity of the globe; I shall collect my funeral pile, and consume to ashes this miserable frame, that its remains may afford no light to any curious and unhallowed wretch, who would create such another as I have been.”

   “Jack Bradshaw, the leader of the Owl Patrol of the Redscar Scouts, strode to the dry stone wall bounding the cliff path, and drew from between the stones a ball of crumpled paper. He was curious as to why it had been placed there—where it could not have lodged accidentally—and he smoothed it out. He found it to be pencilled over with figures, like a scrap that had been used to reckon on.”

   “George is a little monkey, / and all monkeys are curious. / But no monkey / is as curious as George. / That is why his name is / Curious George.”

2. Caused by curiosity.

   “But he to ſhifte their curious requeſt, / Gan cauſen, why ſhe could not come in place; [...].”

   “Such is the uneven State of human Life: And it afforded me a great many curious Speculations afterwards, when I had a little recovered my first surprise.”

   “The doctor heard him, faced around, and stood waiting, a curious expression settling on his harsh, medicinal face as Mr. Button drew near.”

3. Leading one to ask questions about; somewhat odd, out of the ordinary, or unusual.

   “The platypus is a curious creature, with fur like a mammal and a beak like a bird.”

   “1485 – Thomas Malory. Le Morte Darthur, Book X, Chapter xxxi, leaf 232v Thenne at the mete cam in Elyas the harper & by cause he was a curyous harper men herd hym synge the same lay that Dynadan had made "Then at the meat came in Eliot the harper, and because he was a curious harper men heard him sing the same lay that Dinadan had made"”

   “Abundance of Samphire, and a curious bulboſe Plant, creſted with little Flowers ſtriped with white and Cinnamon colour.”

   “I found him by his Blood ſtaining the water; and by the help of a Rope which I slung round him and gave the Negroes to hawl, they drag'd him on Shore, and found that it was a moſt curious Leopard, ſpotted and fine to an admirable Degree, and the Negroes held up their Hands with Admiration to think what it was I had kill'd him with.”

   “"But the curiousest thing a'most as I ever see at sea," resumed the mate, with an air of abstraction, and filling himself another glass of grog—"a'most the curiousest thing I ever see was when I was a coming home from Quebec in the old Jane— [...]"”

4. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping)Clipping of bi-curious.

   “It's not what I'm used to / Just wanna try you on / I'm curious for you / Caught my attention”

5. (in-compounds)Interested in entering a romantic or sexual relationship with a specified group.

   “On the app I’d ultimately go with, I presented myself truthfully, as a Republican-curious woman tired of the Democrats’ hopelessness and constant pivoting during a highly charged election year.”

6. (obsolete)Careful, fastidious, particular; (specifically) demanding a high standard of excellence, difficult to satisfy.

   “Honourable even in the curiousest pointes of honour, whereout there can no disgrace nor disperagement come unto her.”

   “I am ſo fraught with curious buſineſſe, that / I leaue out ceremony.”

   “[We] never had better fires in England, then in the dry, ſmoaky houſes of Kecoughtan: but departing thence, when we found no houſes we were not curious in any weather to lye three or foure nights together vnder the trees by a fire, [...]”

   “[...] For he that is curious of his time, will not eaſily be unready and unfurniſhed.”

   “A pious woman [i.e., Catherine of Aragon] [...] little curious in her clothes, being wont to say, she accounted no time lost, but what was laid out in dressing of her; [...]”

7. (obsolete)Carefully or artfully constructed; made with great elegance or skill.

   “To honour which a worlde of people reſorted unto the Lord de Bolognas caſtle; for the intertainment of whiche gueſtes, there neither wanted coſtly cheare, curious ſhewes, or pleaſaunt deviſes, that eyther money, friendſhip or cunning might compaſſe.”

   “His wonted ſleepe, vnder a freſh trees ſhade, / All which ſecure, and ſweetly he enjoyes, / Is farre beyond a Princes Delicates: / His Viands ſparkling in a Golden Cup, / His bodie couched in a curious bed, / When Care, Miſtrust, and Treaſon waits on him.”

   “And the curious girdle of the Ephod, which is upon it, ſhall bee of the ſame, according to the worke thereof; euen of gold, of blew, and purple, and ſcarlet, and fine twined linnen.”

   “[I]f view'd with a very good Microſcope, we may find that the top of a Needle (though as to the ſenſe very ſharp) appears a broad, blunt, and very irregular end; not reſembling a Cone, as is imagin'd, but onely a piece of a tapering body, with a great part of the top remov'd, or deficient. The Points of Pins are yet more blunt, and the Points of the moſt curious Mathematital Inſtruments do very ſeldome arrive at ſo great a ſharpneſs; [...]”

8. (not-comparable, rare)Containing or pertaining to trivalent curium.