▪ I. curve, a. and n.
(kɜːv)
[ad. L. curv-us bending, bent, curved, crooked.]
A. adj. Curved. Now rare.
| 1571 Digges Pantom. ii. xiii. N iij b, Suche playne Superficies as are enuironed with curue lynes. 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 107 The Tail is Curve. 1716 Cheyne Philos. Princ. Relig. i. 95 Partly terminated with plain, and partly with curve surfaces. 1755 T. Amory Mem. (1769) II. 156 On which are fastened curve pieces of wood. c 1865 Brougham Introd. Disc. in Circ. Sc. I. p. xi, The Earth moves round the Sun in the same curve line. |
B. n. (Short for curve-line, etc.: cf. F. courbe = ligne courbe.)
1. a. Geom. A curved line: a locus which may be conceived to be traced by a moving point, the direction of whose motion continuously changes or deviates from a straight line. (In Higher Geometry, extended to include the straight line.)
algebraic curve: a curve expressed by an equation containing only algebraic functions, i.e. such as involve only addition, multiplication, involution, and their converses; of which kind are the various conic sections: opposed to transcendental curve (or mechanical curve) curve, one which can be expressed only by an equation involving higher functions, as the catenary, cycloid, etc. curve of probability: a transcendental curve representing the probabilities of recurrences of an event. curve of pursuit: the curve traced by a point moving with constant velocity, whose motion is directed at each instant towards another point which also moves with constant velocity (usually in a straight line). curve of sines: a curve in which the abscissa is proportional to some quantity and the ordinate to the sine of that quantity; so also curve of cosines, tangents, etc. See also anaclastic, catenary, caustic, cubic, exponential, etc. etc.
| 1696 Whiston Th. Earth i. 22 All Bodies..which revolve in Curves..are attracted..continually towards that Point or Center. 1706 H. Ditton Fluxions 221 That Curve to which this Property agrees, must be the Curve of swiftest Descent. 1751 Chambers Cycl., Radial curves, is a denomination given by some authors to curves of the spiral kind, whose ordinates..all terminate in the centre of the including circle, and appear like so many radii..whence the name. 1871 Tait & Steele Dynamics of a Particle (ed. 3) i. §32 Illustrations..are to be found in what are called Curves of Pursuit. These questions arose from the consideration of the path taken by a dog who in following his master always directs his course towards him. 1875 Jevons Money (1878) 138 The curve..shows the course of variation of the standard of value. 1882 Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 38 What curve do the chalk marks make in the rolling body? Evidently..a circle..What curve do the chalk marks make on the fixed plane? Evidently a right line. |
† b. A curved surface. Obs.
| 1728 tr. Newton's Opt. Lect. 173 The Refraction of a Ray by a Curve is the same, as by a Plane touching the Curve in the Point of Refraction. |
c. Physics, Statistics, etc. A graph or line drawn from point to point so as to represent diagrammatically a continuous variation of a quantity, either with time or with respect to some other quantity.
| 1854 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. & Arts 2nd Ser. XVII. 423 The same general law gives the intensity of the induced magnetism as a function of the exciting force... The curves which represent the law of induction for diamagnetic substances are surrounded..by the curves for magnetic substances. 1874 Proc. R. Soc. XXII. 27 There will be three curves—one expressing the relation between temperature and pressure for gas with liquid, another expressing that for gas with solid, and another expressing that for liquid with solid. 1884 Pharmaceut. Jrnl. & Trans. 26 July 77/2 The object of these curves was to show clearly some of the most important factors in the growth of crops. 1886 F. Galton in Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. XV. 263 Section of surface parallel to XY is a true curve of frequency. 1899 Temperature curve [see temperature 10]. 1909 K. Pearson Problem Pract. Eugenics 11 The curve for all possibly reproductive wives is amply verified by the curve for young wives. 1911 W. E. Dalby in Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1910 695 The curves of mileage, passengers carried, and goods carried increase regularly with the increase of capital. 1940 R. S. Woodworth Psychol. (ed. 12) 62 If we outline the shape of the distribution by a line joining the tops of adjacent columns we have the distribution curve. 1958 Times Rev. Industry Apr. 81/2 In the..Community industries the curve of annual steel production increase is flattening out. 1959 Listener 13 Aug. 237/2 The population curve has slowed down. |
2. A curved form, outline, etc.; a curved thing or portion of a thing. spec. the curving line of the female figure; usu. in pl.
| 1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 172 It rose, and labour'd to a curve at most. 1750 Franklin Experiments Wks. 1887 II. 203 Take a wire bent in the form of a C, with a stick of wax fixed to the outside of the curve to hold it by. 1783 P. Pott Chirurg. Wks. III. 407 A smart blow, or a violent strain had immediately preceded the appearance of the curve [of the spine]. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. xi. 112 Etah is on the northeastern curve of Hartstene Bay. 1862 Harper's Mag. June 45/1 The full round shape hid half its voluptuous curves in the shade of the dark-green riding-suit. 1906 Dress Nov. 26/2 Where the figure of the client is naturally too flat to meet this present demand for curves, the corsetière is apt to add a few little pinked-out silken frills. 1929 Wodehouse Mr. Mulliner Speaking i. 9, I can remember the days..when every other girl you met stood about six feet two in her dancing-shoes and had as many curves as a Scenic Railway. 1931 A. Christie Sittaford Myst. i. 8 What was the good of a woman if she didn't look like a woman? Papers said curves were coming back. About time, too. 1963 van Praagh & Brinson Choreogr. Art 174 The emancipated modern woman is athletic, well-groomed and chic with good proportions and fewer curves than in earlier periods. |
3. (See quot.)
| 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Curve, a draftsman's instrument having one or a variety of curves of various characters..Some are constructed for specific purposes, such as shipwright's curves, radii-curves, etc. |
4. Baseball. ‘The course of a ball so pitched that it does not pass in a straight line from the pitcher to the catcher, but makes a deflection in the air other than the ordinary one caused by the force of gravity’ (Cent. Dict.). Also attrib. and fig.
| 1879 De Witt's Baseball Guide 24 The great difficulty in curve pitching is to obtain the required command of the ball. 1887 Outing (U.S.) May 98/1 Assertions were rife in all quarters that the curve was a fallacy. 1912 C. Mathewson Pitching 14 Big League ball-players recognize only two kinds of pitched balls—the curve and the straight one. 1960 H. Seymour Baseball xxiii. 278 Fooling him with a curve on the outside. 1970 W. Smith Gold Mine xxxv. 92 Are we going to sit back and let them have a free run? No, sir! We are going to throw down our own curve ball! |
5. pl. Round brackets; parentheses. U.S.
| 1928 M. H. Weseen Crowell's Dict. Eng. Gram. 169 Curves. This term is sometimes used to denote parenthesis marks ( ). 1961 R. B. Long Sentence & Parts xx. 475 Curves are usable to inclose quite clearly what occurs where commas would be confusing and dashes a little strong. |
C. Comb., as curve-billed (epithet of a N. American thrush); curve-fitting, the determination of the equation of the curve which, subject to any conditions such as the possible number of parameters, most closely represents the points on a graph or describes most accurately the relation between the variables they represent; † curve-lined a., composed of curved lines, curvilinear; curve-plotting, the graphic representation of a curve in a plan or diagram by means of points marked on co-ordinates; curve-ruler (see quot.); curve-veined a. (of leaves), having veins diverging from the midrib and converging towards the margin.
| 1881 Amer. Naturalist XV. 217 The *curve-billed thrush (H[arporhynchus] curvirostris). |
| 1902 Biometrika I. 266 Half the difficulty of curve-fitting..lies in the choice of a suitable curve. 1924 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. X. 79 (heading) The development of a frequency function and some comments [on] *curve fitting. 1930 Meteorol. Gloss. (ed. 2) 51 Two main types of problems arise in connexion with curve fitting. We may either require to represent a variable quantity as a function of some independent variable such as time,..by drawing a curve to represent the functional relationship, or we may require to represent the frequency of occurrence of different values of a quantity,..by means of a curve whose formula must be obtained. 1970 Computers & Humanities IV. 343 Through use of a curve-fitting technique, high-order polynomial expressions relating pitch to time (rhythm) are generated for each incipit. |
| 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 288 Innumerable sorts of *Curve-lined figures. c 1865 Brougham Introd. Disc. in Circ. Sc. I. p. vi, There are curve-lined figures as well as straight. |
| 1905 Ashe & Keiley Electr. Railways 6 *Curve plotting is accomplished by means of a series of perpendicular and parallel lines..termed coördinates. 1945 Jrnl. Franklin Inst. CCXL. 278 Curve-plotting output units. |
| 1879 T. Baker Land & Eng. Surv. 159 Railway *Curve-rulers are a series of arcs of circles of various radii..used for projecting railway curves on parliamentary maps. |
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 364 Curvinerved, *Curve-veined, the same as Convergentinervose. 1870 Bentley Botany 147. |
▪ II. curve, v.
(kɜːv)
[ad. L. curvā-re to crook, f. curv-us crooked, curve a. Cf. F. courber.]
1. trans. To bend so as to form a curve; to cause to take a curved form; to inflect.
| 1669 Holder Elem. Speech (L.), The tongue is drawn back and curved. 1791 Cowper Iliad iv. 145 When the horn was curved to a wide arch. 1855 Tennyson Maud i. xiii, Curving a contumelious lip. |
2. intr. To have or assume a curved form.
| 1594 [see curving vbl. n.]. 1748 Richardson Clarissa Wks. 1883 VI. 141 He [Boreas] puffed away most vehemently; and often made the poor fellow curve and stagger. 1855 Tennyson Brook 182 And out again I curve and flow To join the brimming river. 1875 Darwin Insectiv. Pl. ii. 37 The tentacles curve inwards. |
3. trans. Baseball. To throw or pitch (a ball) with a curve (see curve n. 4).
| [1856 Spirit of Times 6 Dec. 229/1 It is questionable..whether his style of pitching is most successful, many believing a slow ball curving near the bat, to be the most effective.] 1878 De Witt's Baseball Guide 35 With a view of settling the vexed question as to whether a pitcher can or cannot curve a ball, practical experiments were made. 1960 H. Seymour Baseball xvi. 177 The pitcher..dominated the game merely because he could curve a ball. |