Also 5 croul, 5–6 kurl, 6 courl, 6–7 curle; see also CURLED. [The early instances are of the pa. pple., which also occurs in the 14th c. in the forms crolled, crulled; these forms attach the vb. to the earlier adj. croll, CRULL, curly, which goes back to 1300, and corresponds to similar words in Fris., MDu. and MG. In these langs. also there is a derivative verb: Ger. krollen, kröllen, LG., Du., EFris. krullen to curl.]
I. trans. 1. To bend round, wind or twist into ringlets, as the hair.
[1380. see CURLED.]
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 142. A chyld apperyd … Barefoot and wyth heer kurlyd semely.
1493. Festivall (W. de W., 1515), 164. Therfore (ye women) … haue not your visage popped ne your here pulled or crouled.
1570. Levins, Manip., 191/4. To curle, crispare.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 20. They curle their haire and are proud of it.
1848. Thackeray, Lett., 12 Aug. He curls his hair in the most killing manner.
1891. Truth, 10 Dec., 1240/2. Black cocks’ feathers, curled, formed the collar.
† 2. To furnish or adorn with curls or ringlets; also fig. Obs.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. v. 34. His [Cerberus’] three deformed heads … Curled with thousand adders.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Jordan, i. Curling with metaphors a plain intention.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 560. The snakie locks That curld Megæra.
3. To bend, twist or coil up into a spiral or incurved shape; to make curls or undulations upon (a surface); to ripple (water). Often with up.
1562. Turner, Baths, 11. Vntill the sicke man perceyue the endes of his fingers to be kurled or wrinkled.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. i. 23. The Windes, Who take the Ruffian Billowes by the top, Curling their monstrous heads.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 517. So varied hee [the serpent], and of his tortuous Traine Curld many a wanton wreath.
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, VII. 72. Soft zephyrs curling the wide watery main.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, III. xxviii. The morning breeze the lake had curl’d.
1818. Parl. Deb., 1016. Those leaves have been sometimes curled by a vitriolic preparation, and coloured for Green tea with verdigrise.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., iii. (1889), 23. Jack [the dog] … curled himself up on the sofa.
b. To curl the lip: to bend or raise the upper lip slightly on one side, as an expression of contempt or scorn.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xii. His lip was now compressed … now curled slightly upward.
1847. G. P. R. James, J. Marston Hall, viii. A bitter smile curled the lip of the President.
II. intr. 4. Of hair: To form curls or ringlets.
1530. Palsgr., 504/2. Se howe his heare curleth nowe that it is newe wasshed.
1662. J. Davies, Voy. Ambass., 74. It is the heat of the Sun that burns the skin, and makes the haire curle.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. xxv. His flaxen hair … Curled closely round his bonnet blue.
1842. Bischoff, Woollen Manuf., II. 301. The finer the fleece naturally is, the more readily it curls.
5. To take a spiral or incurved form or posture. Often with up.
1694. Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 32. In stormy Weather little Waves curl on the top of the great ones.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., III. 318. When yielded she lay curling in thy arms.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants, IV. 33. Leaves … brownish green, curling when dry.
1861. Holland, Less. Life, iii. 40. Cat and kittens will … curl up in some dark corner.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., ix. 218. The tentacles began to curl inwards.
b. Of the lip: cf. 3 b.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, I. viii. The full-drawn lip that upward curled.
1837. Lytton, E. Maltrav., 57. Ernest’s lip curled slightly, for his pride was touched.
c. Of potatoes: To become affected with curl: see CURL sb. 4.
1793. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts (ed. 2), IV. 97. A very fine table Potatoe that never curls.
d. To curl up (Sporting): to give up as dead-beat, to collapse.
1891. Daily News, 12 June, 3/2. At the half-distance Le Nord looked like winning easily; but he curled up in the last few strides.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 March, 3/1. The latter college rather ‘curled up,’ as the phrase goes, when once their opponents got the lead.
† 6. To twist about, writhe. Obs.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Fall of Mortimer, I. i. 23. The very thinking it would make … some politic tradesman Curl with the caution of a constable!
1664. Floddan F., iii. 27. A Cock curling as he would crow.
7. To move in spiral convolutions or undulations.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest (1820), I. 135. The damp vapours curled round him.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 208. Brooks curl o’er their sandy bed.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xiv. (1876), 296. Volumes of smoke were curling upwards.
8. Sc. To play at CURLING q.v.
1715. Pennecuik, Author’s Answ., Poems 59. To Curle on the Ice does greatly please Being a manly Scotish Exercise.
Mod. A piece of water on which they curl in winter.
