ppl. a. Forms: α. 4 crollid, 5 crulled, 6 crouled; β. 5 curlyd, 6 corlde, 6–7 curld, 6– curled. [f. CURL v. and sb. + -ED. (No other part of the vb. is found so early.)]
1. Formed into curls or ringlets, as hair.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1354. Þat other wyþ þe crollid her … þat ys Berard.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Curlyd, as here, crispus.
1496. Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), I. viii. 39/1. They be paynted with crulled here.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 23. The heare of theyr heades is merueylouslye corlde.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 14. Some frounce their curled heare in courtly guise.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 88. So curled hair is generally regarded among us as a beauty.
1842. Bischoff, Woollen Manuf., II. 296. The wool … short and somewhat curled.
2. Having or adorned with curls or ringlets; curly. Also fig.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. viii. 7. Her curled head.
1604. Shaks., Oth., I. ii. 68. The wealthy curled Deareling of our Nation.
1692. O. Walker, Greek & Rom. Hist. Illustr., 291. He was not so curled, nor so flat nosed.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., XIX. 307. His visage swarthy, curl’d His poll.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Nature, Wks. (Bohn), I. 229. The smoothest curled courtier in the boudoirs of a palace.
3. Bent into or towards a spiral form; disposed in more or less spiral convolutions.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 109. The knobbes [of the maple] … hath the fairer and the more courled graine.
1611. Heywood, Gold. Age, I. Wks. 1874, III. 5. Made Neptunes Trident calme the curled waues.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., iv. 72. The pedicels of these glands were spirally curled.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, I. viii. Old men … lay with curled-up limbs, shaking with cold.
b. Of leaves: Having a much waved edge or surface. transf. Of plants: Having curled leaves.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 651. Plants that have curled Leaves, do all abound with moisture.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants, III. 360. Leaves slender, curled.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 261. A variety of this herb, called Curled Tansy.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 924. The Savoy with its curled blistered leaves.
Mod. A row of Curled Parsley.
4. Of potatoes: Affected with CURL (sb. 4).
1788. Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, VI. p. xiii. That disease in Potatoes, called the curled Potatoe.
1796. Hull Advertiser, 3 Sept., 2/2. That fatal disease so incident to … the Potatoe, known by the appellation of the ‘Curled Top.’
1845. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VI. I. 164. Curled potatoes ripen early, some weeks before the healthy plants.
5. Comb., as curled-horned adj.; † curled-head, † curled-pate adjs., curly-headed.
1607. Shaks., Timon, IV. iii. 160. Make curld’pate Ruffians bald.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, II. 380. The curl’d head Greeks.
1826. W. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 193. Fine curled-horned and long-tailed ewes.
Hence Curledness, curled state or quality.
1530. Palsgr., 211/2. Curlydnesse of ones heer, crespure.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 68. The haires … do vary in … length and shortnesse, streightnesse and curlednesse.
