Swift.

Luke.

I do cures to-day and to-morrow. 3. The benefice or employment of a curate or clergyman.

If his cure lies among the lawyers, let nothing be said against entangling property, spinning out causes, squeezing clients, and making the laws a greater grievance than those who break them. Collier.

To CURE. v. a. [curo, Latin.] 1. To heal; to restore to health; to remedy; to recover: with of before the disease. Used of patients or diseases.

The bones, in sharp colds, wax brittle; and therefore all contusions of bones, in hard weather, are more difficult to cure. Bacon's Nat. Hist. Here the poor lover, that has long endur'd Some proud nymph's scorn, of his fond passion's cur'd. Waller.

I never knew any man cured of inattention.

Swift.

Hear what from love unpractis'd hearts endure;

From love, the sole disease thou canst not cure. Pope. 2. To prepare in any manner, so as to be preserved from corruption.

The beef would be so ill chosen, or so ill cured, as to stink many times before it came so far as Holland. Temple. CU'RELESS. adj. [cure and less.] Without cure; without remedy.

Bootless are plaints, and cureless are my
wounds;

No way to fly, nor strength to hold out flight.
Shaksp. Henry VI.
Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
To cureless ruin. Shaksp. Merchant of Venice.
If, said he,

Your grief alone is hard captivity;
For love of heav'n, with patience undergo

A cureless ill, since fate will have it so. Dryden.

CU'RER. n. s. [from cure.] A healer; a physician.

He is a curer of souls, and you a curer of bodies: if you should fight, you go against the hair of your professions. Shakspeare.

The indexterity and worse success of the most famous of our consumption curers, do evidently demonstrate their dimness in beholding its causes. Harvey on Consumptions. CU'RFEW. n. s. [couvre feu, French.] 1. An evening-peal, by which the Conqueror willed that every man should rake up his fire, and put out his light; so that in many places, at this day, where a bell is customarily rung towards bedtime, it is said to ring curfew. Cowell. You, whose pastime

Is to make midnight mushrooms; that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew. Shaksp. Tempest. Oft on a plat of rising ground I hear the far off curfew sound, Over some wide-water'd shore, Swinging slow with sullen roar. 2. A cover for a fire; a fireplate.

Milton.

But now for pans, pots, curfews, counters,

4.

Qualities are so weighed, that curiosity in neither can make choice of either's moiety. Shaksp. King Lear. Our senses, however armed or assisted, are too gross to discern the curiosity of the workman ship of nature.

Ray, An act of curiosity; nice experi

ment.

There hath been practised also a curiosity, to set a tree upon the north side of a wall, and, at a little height, to draw it through the wall, and spread it upon the south side; conceiving that the root and lower part of the stock should enjoy the freshness of the shade, and the upper boughs and fruit, the comfort of the sun: but it sorted not. Bacon's Natural History, 5. An object of curiosity; rarity,

We took a ramble together to see the cria ties of this great town. Addison's Freebalder. CURIOUS. adj. [curiosus, Latin.] 1. Inquisitive; desirous of information; addicted to inquiry.

2.

3.

Be not curious in unnecessary matters; for more things are shewn unto thee than men understand. Eccles.

Even then to them the spirit of lies suggests That they were blind, because they saw not ill; And breath'd into their uncorrupted breasts A curious wish, which did corrupt their will. Devics

If any one too curious should enquire After a victory which we disdain,

Then let him know the Belgians did retire Before the patron saint of injur'd Spain. Dryd Reader, if any curious stay

To ask my hated name,

Tell them the grave that hides my clay Conceals me from my shame.

Attentive to; diligent about: sometimes with after.

It is pity a gentleman so very curious after things that were elegant and beautiful, should not have been as curious as to their origin, their uses, and their natural history. Wendward. Sometimes with of.

Then thus a senior of the places replies, Well read, and curious of antiquities. Dryden. 4. Accurate; careful not to mistake.

5.

Till Arianism had made it a matter of great sharpness and subtlety of wit to be a sound be lieving christian, men were not curious what syllables or particles of speech they used. Hooker. Difficult to please; solicitous of perfection; not negligent; full of care.

A temperate person is not curious of fancies and deliciousness; he thinks not much, and speaks not often, of meat and drink. Tayler. 6. Exact; nice; subtile.

Both these senses embrace their objects st greater distance, with more variety, and with a more curious discrimination, than the other sense. Holder

CUR

7. Artful; not neglectful; nicely diligent.

A vaile obscur'd the sunshine of her eyes, The rose within herself her sweetness clos'd; Each ornament about her seemly lies, By curious chance, or careless art, compos'd.

Fairfax.

8. Elegant; neat; laboured; finished. Understanding to devise curious works, to Exodus. work in gold.

9. Rigid; severe; rigorous.

For curious I cannot be with you, Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well. Shaks. CURIOUSLY. adv. [from curious.] 1. Inquisitively; attentively; studiously. He looked very curiously upon himself; sometimes fetching a little skip, as if he said his Sidney. strength had not yet forsaken him.

At first I thought there had been no light reflected from the water in that place; but observing it more curiously, I saw within it several smaller round spots, which appeared much blacker and darker than the rest. Newton's Opticks. 2. Elegantly; neatly.

Nor is it the having of wheels and springs, though never so curiously wrought, and artificially set, but the winding of them up, that must give motion to the watch.

3. Artfully; exactly.

4. Captiously.

South.

To CURL. v. a. [krollen, Dutch; cynɲan, Sax. krille, Dan.]

1. To turn the hair in ringlets.

What hast thou been?

-A serving man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair, wore gloves in my cap, served the lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her. Shakspeare's King Lear. 2. To writhe; to twist. 3. To dress with curls.

If she first meet the curled Antony, He'll make demand of her a kiss. Shakspeare.

They, up the trees

2. To rise in undulations.

seen.

3. To twist itself.

Trevoux.

CURMUDGEON. n. s. [It is a vitious manner of pronouncing cœur mechant, Fr. An unknown correspondent.] An avaricious churlish fellow; a miser; a niggard; a churl; a griper.

And when he has it in his claws, He'll not be hide-bound to the cause; Nor shalt thou find him a curmudgeon,

If thou dispatch it without grudging. Hudibras. A man's way of living is commended, because he will give any rate for it; and a man will give any rate rather than pass for a poor wretch, or a Locke. penurious curmudgeon.

CURMUDGEONLY. adj. [from curmud geon.] Avaricious; covetous; churlish; niggardly.

In a country where he that killed a hog invited the neighbourhood, a curmudgeonly fellow advised with his companions how he might save L'Estrange. the charge.

CURRANT. n. s. [ribes, Lat.]

I. The tree hath no prickles; the leaves are large; the flower consists of five leaves, placed in form of a rose; the ovary, which arises from the centre of the flower-cup, becomes a globular fruit, produced in bunches.

2. A small dried grape : properly written corinth.

They butter'd currants on fat veal bestow'd, And rumps of beef with virgin honey stew'd; Insipid taste, old friend, to them who Paris know,

Where rocombole, shallot, and the rank gailick,
King.
grow.

CURRENCY. n. s. [from current.]
1. Circulation; power of passing from
hand to hand.

The currency of those half-pence would, in the universal opinion of our people, be utterly destructive to this kingdom. Swift.

2. General reception: as, the report had

He that thinketh Spain to be some great overmatch for this estate, assisted as it is and may be, is no good mintman; but takes greatness of kingdoms according to their bulk and currency, and not after intrinsick value. Bacon.

6. The papers stamped in the English colonies by authority, and passing for money.

CURRENT. adj. [currens, Latin.] 1. Circulatory; passing from hand to hand.

Shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. Genesis. That there was current money in Abraham's time, is past doubt, though it is not sure that it was stampt; for he is said to be rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. Arbuthnot. 2. Generally received; uncontradicted; authoritative.

Many strange bruits are received for current.

Sidney.

Because such as openly reprove supposed disorders of state are taken for principal friends to the common benefit of all; under this fair and plausible colour, whatsoever they utter passeth for good and current. Hooker.

I have collected the facts, with all possible impartiality, from the current histories of those times. Swift.

3. Common; general.

They have been trained up from their infancy in one set of notions, without ever hearing or knowing what other opinions are current among mankind. Watts. About three months ago we had a current report of the king of France's death. Addison. 4. Popular; such as is established by vulgar' estimation.

We are also to consider the difference between worth and merit, strictly taken: that is a man's intrinsick, this his current, value; which is less or ntore, as men have occasion for him.

5. Fashionable; popular.

Grew.

Oft leaving what is natural and fit, The current folly proves our ready wit; And authors think their reputation safe, Which lives as long as fools are pleas'd to laugh.

Pope.

4. Passable; such as may be allowed or admitted.

Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make

No excuse current but to hang thyself. Shaksp. 7. What is now passing; what is at present in its course: as, the current year. CURRENT. n. s.

1. A running stream.

The current, that with gentle murmur glides, Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;

stones.

But when his fair course is not hindered, He makes sweet musick with th' enamell'd Shakspeare These inequalities will vanish in one place, and presently appear in another, and seem perfectly to move like waves, succeeding and destroying one another; save that their motion oftentimes seems to be quickest, as if in that vast sea they were carried on by a current, or at least by a tide. Boyle.

Heav'n her Eridanus no more shall boast, Whose fame in thine, like lesser current, 's lost; Thy nobler streams shall visit Jove's abodes, To shine among the stars, and bathe the gods. Denbam.

Not fabled Po more swells the poet's lays, While through the sky his shining current strays.

Pope.

2. [In navigation.]

Currents are certain progressive motions of the water of the sea in several places, either quite down to the bottom, or to a certain determinate depth; by which a ship may happen to be car ried more swiftly, or retarded in her course, ac cording to the direction of the current with or against the way of the ship. Harri 3. Course; progression.

The castle of Cadmus was taken, and Thebes invested, by Phebidas, the Lacedemonian, insidi ously; which drew on a resurprize of the castle, a recovery of the town, and a current of the wat even into the walls of Sparta. Bars CURRENTLY. adv. [from current.]

I. In a constant motion. 2. Without opposition.

The very cause which maketh the simple and ignorant to think they even see how the word of God runneth currently on your side, is that their minds are forestalled, and their conceits pervert. ed beforehand. Hooker, Prefact Popularly; fashionably; generally. 4. Without ceasing. CURRENTNESS. n. s. [from current.] 1. Circulation. 2. General reception.

3.

3.

Easiness of pronunciation.

When substantialness combineth with delightfulness, and currentness with stayedness, how can the language sound other than most full of sweetness? Camden's Remains. CU'RRIER. n. s. [coriarius, Latin.] One who dresses and pares leather for those who make shoes, or other things.

A currier bought a bear-skin of a huntsman, and laid him down ready money for it.

L'Estrange. Warn'd by frequent ills, the way they found To lodge their loathsome carrion under ground; For useless to the currier were their hides, Nor could their tainted flesh with ocean tides Be freed from filth. Dryden's Virgil. CU'RRISH. adj. [from cur.] Having the qualities of a degenerate dog; brutal; sour; quarrelsome; malignant; churlish; uncivil; untractable; impracti cable.

Sweet speaking oft a currish heart reclaims.

Sidney No care of justice, nor no rule of reason, Did thenceforth ever enter in his mind; But cruelty, the sign of currish kind. Hub. Tel. In fashions wayward, and in love unkind; For Cupid deigns not wound a currish mind. Fairfax.

I would she were in heaven, so she could Entreat some pow'r to change this currish Jew. Shakspeart. She says, your dog was a cur; and tells you, currish thanks is good enough for such a present. Shakspeart To CU'RRY. v. a. [corium, leather, Lat.] I. To dress leather, by beating and rubbing it.

2.

To beat; to drub; to thrash; to chas tise.

A deep design in 't to divide
The well-affected that confide;
By setting brother against brother,
To claw and curry one another.

Hudibra

I may expect her to take care of her family, and curry her hide in case of refusal. Addin 3. To rub a horse with a scratching in strument, so as to smooth his coat, and promote his flesh.

Frictions make the parts more fleshy and full; as we see both in men, and in the currying of horses: the cause is, for that they draw a greater quantity of spirits and blood to the parts. Bacon. 4. To scratch in kindness; to rub down with flattery; to tickle.

If I had a suit to master Shallow, I would humour his men; if to his men, I would curry with master Shallow. Shakspeare. 5. To CURRY Favour. To become a favourite by petty officiousness, slight kindnesses, or flattery.

He judged them still over-abjectly to fawn upon the heathens, and to curry favour with infidels. Hooker.

This humour succeeded so with the puppy, that an ass would go the same way to work to curry favour for himself. L'Estrange. CURRYCOMB. n. s. [from curry and comb.] An iron instrument used for currying or cleaning horses.

He has a clearer idea from a little print than from a long definition; and so he would have of strigil and sistrum, if, instead of a currycomb and cymbal, he could see stamped in the margin small pictures of these instruments. Locke. To CURSE. v. a. [cuɲsian, Saxon.] 1. To wish evil to; to execrate; to devote.

Curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me. Numbers. After Solyman had looked upon the dead body, and bitterly cursed the same, he caused a great weight to be tied unto it, and so cast into the Knolles.

sea.

What, yet again? the third time hast thou

Pope. To CURSE. v. n. To imprecate; to deny or affirm with imprecation of divine vengeance.

The silver about which thou cursedst, and speakest of also in my ears, behold the silver is with me.

Judges.

CURSE. n.s. [from the verb.] 1. Malediction; wish of evil to another. Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin, by Job. wishing a curse to his soul. I never went from your lordship but with a longing to return; or without a hearty curse to him who invented ceremonies, and put me on the necessity of withdrawing. Dryden. 2. Affliction; torment; vexation.

Curse on the stripling! how he apes his sire! Ambitiously sententious. Addison CURSED. participial adj. [from curse.] 1. Deserving a curse; hateful; detestable; abominable; wicked.

Merciful pow'rs!

Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose. Shakspeare.

2. Unholy; unsanctified; blasted by a

3. Vexatious; troublesome.

This cursed quarrel be no more renew'd: Be, as becomes a wife, obedient still;

Though griev'd, yet subject to her husband's will.

Dryden.

One day, I think, in Paradise he liv'd; Destin'd the next his journey to pursue, Where wounding thorns and cursed thistles grew. Prior. CURSEDLY, adv. [from cursed.] Miserably; shamefully: a low cant word. Satisfaction and restitution lies so cursedly hard on the gizzards of our publicans. L'Estrange. Sure this is a nation that is cursedly afraid of being over-run with too much politeness, and cannot regain one great genius but at the exPope. pence of another. CURSEDNESS. n. s. [from cursed.] The state of being under a curse. CU'RSHIP. n. s. [from cur.] Dogship; meanness; scoundrelship.

How durst, I say, oppose thy curship 'Gainst arms, authority, and worship? Hudib CURSITOR. n. s. [Latin.] An officer or clerk belonging to the Chancery, that makes out original writs. They are called clerks of course, in the oath of the clerks of Chancery. Of these there are twenty-four in number, which have certain shires allotted to each of them, into which they make out such original writs as are required. They are a corporation among themselves.

Cowell.

Then is the recognition and value, signed with the hand-writing of that justice, carried by the cursitor in Chancery for that shire where those lands do lie; and by him is a writ of covenant thereupon drawn, and engrossed on parchment.

Bacon.

CURSORARY. adj. [from cursus, Latin.] Cursory; hasty; careless. A word, I believe, only found in the following line. I have but with a cursorary eye

O'erglanc'd the articles. Shakspeare's Henry v. CURSORILY. adv. [from cursory.] Hastily without care; without solicitous attention.

This power, and no other, Luther disowns; as any one that views the place but cursorily must needs see. Atterbury. CURSORINESS. n. s. [from cursory.] Slight

attention.

CURSORY. adj. [from cursorius, Latin.] Hasty; quick; inattentive; careless.

The first, upon a cursory and superficial view, appeared like the head of another man. Addison. CURST. adj. Froward; peevish; malignant; mischievous; malicious; snarling.

Mr. Mason, after his manner, was very merry with both parties; pleasantly playing both with the shrewd touches of many curst boys, and with the small discretion of many lewd schoolmasters. Ascham's Schoolmaster. Proverb.

Curst cows have short horns.
I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;

I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
I am a right maid for my cowardice;
Let her not strike me.

Shakspeare

I'll go see if the bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten: they are never curst but when they are hungry. Shaksp Her only fault, and that is fault enough, Is that she is intolerably curst,

Then, noble partners,

Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms, Nor curstness grow to the matter. Shakspeare.

Her mouth she writh'd, her forehead taught to frown,

Her eyes to sparkle fires to love unknown; Her sallow cheeks her envious mind did shew, And ev'ry feature spoke aloud the curstness of a shrew. Dryden. CURT. adj. [from curtus, Latin.] Short. To CU'RŤAİL. v. a. [curto, Latin. It was anciently written curtal, which perhaps is more proper; but dogs that had their tails cut being called curta! dogs, the word was vulgarly conceived to mean originally to cut the tail, and was in time written according to that notion.] 1. To cut off; to cut short; to shorten. I, that am curtail'd of all fair proportion, Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time Into this breathing world.

Shakspeare. Then why should we ourselves abridge, And curtail our own privilege?

Hudibras.

Scribblers send us over their trash in prose and verse, with abominable curtailings and quaint modernisms. Swift.

This general employ and expence of their time, would as assuredly curtail and retrench the ordinary means of knowledge and erudition, as it would shorten the opportunities of vice.

Woodward.

Perhaps this humour of speaking no more than we must, has so miserably curtailed some of our words; and, in familiar writings and conversations, they often lose all but their first syllables. Addison's Spectator.

2. It has of before the thing cut off.

The count assured the court, that Fact, his antagonist, had taken a wrong name, having curtailed it of three letters; for that his name was not Fact, but Faction. Addison.

CURTAIL Dog. n.s. A dog larved, or mutilated according to the forest laws, whose tail is cut off, and who is therefore hindered in coursing. Perhaps this word may be the original of cur.

I, amazed, ran from her as a witch; and I think, if my breast had not been made of faith, and my heart of steel, she had transformed me to a curtail dog, and made me turn i' th' wheel. Shakspeare's Comedy of Errours. CU'RTAIN. n. s. [cortina, Latin.] 1. A cloth contracted or expanded at pleasure, to admit or exclude the light, to conceal or discover any thing, to shade a bed, to darken a room,

Their curtains ought to be kept open, so as to renew the air. Arbuthnot on Diet.

Sol through white curtains hot a tim'rous ray, And op'd those eyes that must eclipse the day.

Pope.

Pope. Thy hand, great Dulness! lets the curtain fall, And universal darkness buries all. 2. To draw the CURTAIN. To close it, so as to shut out the light, or conceal the object.

pense.

I must draw a curtain before the work for a while, and keep your patience a little in susBurnet's Theory. Once more I write to you, and this once will be the last the curtain will soon be drawn be twen my friend and me, and nothing left but to wish you a long good-night. Pepe. 3. To open it, so as to discern the object. So soon as the all-cheering sun Should in the farthest east begin to draw The shady curtain from Aurora's bed. Shaksp. Let them sleep, let them sleep on Till this stormy night be gone, And th' eternal morrow dawn; Then the curtain will be drawn.

Crasbar

4. [In fortification.] That part of the wall or rampart that lies between two bastions. Military Dict. The governour, not discouraged, suddenly of timber and boards raised up a curtain twelve foot high, at the back of his soldiers. Knelles. CURTAIN-LECTURE. n. s. [from curtain and lecture.] A reproof given by a wife to her husband in bed.

What endless brawls by wives are bred! The curtain-lecture makes a mournful bed. Dryden's Juvenal.

She ought to exert the authority of the car tain-lecture; and, if she finds him of a rebellious disposition, to tame him.

Addison.

To CURTAIN. v. a. [from the noun.] To enclose or accommodate with curtains.

Now o'er one half the world

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep.
Shakspeare's Macbeth,
The wand'ring prince and Dido,
When with a happy storm they were surpris'd,
And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave.
Shakspeart.

But, in her temple's last recess inclos'd, On Dulness' lap th' Anointed head repos'd: Him close she curtain'd round with vapours blue, And soft besprinkled with Cimmerian dew. Pepe. CURTATE Distance. n. s. [In astronomy.] The distance of a planet's place from the sun, reduced to the ecliptick. CURTA'TION. n. s. [from curto, to shorten, Lat.] The interval between a planet's distance from the sun and the curtate distance. Chambers. CURTELASSE. CU'RTELAX.

See CUTLASS. CU'RTSY. See COURTESY. CU'RVATED. adj. [curvatus, Lat.] Bent;

crooked.

CURVATION. n. s. [curvo, Latin.] The act of bending or crooking. CU'RVATURE. n. s. [from curve.] Crookedness; inflexion; manner of bending. It is bent after the manner of the catenarian curve, by which it obtains that curvature that is safest for the included marrow. Cheyne Flaccid it was beyond the activity of the mus cle, and curvature of the ossicles, to give it a due tension. Holder.

CURVE. adj. [curvus, Latin.] Crooked; bent; inflected; not straight.

Unless an intrinsick principle of gravity or attraction may make it describe a curve line about the attracting body. Bentley. CURVE. n. s. Any thing bent; a flexure or crookedness of any particular form. And as you lead it round in artful curve, With eye intentive mark the springing game. Thomson.