Definition of "curl"

[…] she took it down, looked long and fondly at it, then, shaking her curls about her face, as if to hide the act, pressed it to her lips and seemed to weep over it in an uncontrollable paroxysm of tender grief.

1866, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 7, in Behind A Mask or, A Woman's Power

Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.

1910, Emerson Hough, chapter 1, in The Purchase Price

The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess‎

[…] the backs of their necks and their forelegs are decorated with curls and their necks and bodies are covered with fine, undulating lines.

1995, John Curtis, Julian Reade, Dominique Collon, Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum, page 184

It is possible to use the wind which blows from the left to the right by playing well into the wind with the slightest bit of curl on the ball […]

1909, Harold Horsfall Hilton, The Six Handicap Golfer's Companion, page 38

Now do a curl and an overhead press, keeping your palms facing in.

2007 (Jan/Feb), Jon Crosby, "Your Winter Muscle Makeover", Men's Health, page 54

In 2D, when Q is a polygonal domain, the singularities of Type (2) disappear because ψ is the scalar curl of u and is such that its vectorial curl is zero.

1995, Erich Prisner, Graph dynamics

These potatoes, however, planted the next year, have a fair yield, untouched by the curl.

1840, "Farmers' Department", The Family Magazine‎, volume 1, page 227

He picked the ball up about forty yards out on the left wing, left a trail of Arsenal defenders in his wake, and curled the ball round Geoff Barnett as he came right out into the far corner.

1998, Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch, page 70

Campbell should have scored but missed with a header from four yards at the far post before Taylor-Fletcher came close to adding a second when he curled an effort over the stranded Reina, who should have been punished for a poor clearance.

2011 January 12, Saj Chowdhury, “Liverpool 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC

She curls her spine; she wedges a pillow between her knees.

2004, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Twelve Times Blessed, page 249

It seemed to me that Mr. St. John's under lip protruded, and his upper lip curled a moment.

1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter XXXI, in Jane Eyre

Clouds curled down from the mountains.

1977, Scott O'Dell, Carlota, page 1

The ball curled to a stop within six inches of the hole.

2007, John Coyne, The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan, page 97

When curling the weight, bring the barbell up toward the chin, then return it to its starting position. Keep your elbows and upper arms as immobile as possible to isolate the biceps.

2008, Joseph Lee Klapper, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Boosting Your Metabolism, page 119

But curl their locks with bodkins and with braids

1576, George Gascoigne, The Steele Glas, Epilogus

There was also hairdressing: hairdressing, too, really was hairdressing in those times — no running a comb through it and that was that. It was curled, frizzed, waved, put in curlers overnight, waved with hot tongs; […].

1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins

Thicker than the snakie locks / That curld Megæra.

1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

Curling with metaphors a plain intention.

1633, George Herbert, Jordan

Seas would be pools without the brushing air / To curl the waves.

1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]