curve

Etymology

Attested since the 1690s, from Latin curvus (“bent, curved”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, curve, turn”) + *-wós. Doublet of curb, shrink, carcer, and cancer.

adj

1. (obsolete) Bent without angles; crooked; curved.
   a curve line
   a curve surface

noun

1. A gentle bend, such as in a road.
   You should slow down when approaching a curve.
2. A simple figure containing no straight portions and no angles; a curved line.
   She scribbled a curve on the paper.
3. A grading system based on the scale of performance of a group used to normalize a right-skewed grade distribution (with more lower scores) into a bell curve, so that more can receive higher grades, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject.
   The teacher was nice and graded the test on a curve.
4. (analytic geometry) A continuous map from a one-dimensional space to a multidimensional space.
5. (geometry) A one-dimensional figure of non-zero length; the graph of a continuous map from a one-dimensional space.
6. (algebraic geometry) An algebraic curve; a polynomial relation of the planar coordinates.
7. (topology) A one-dimensional continuum.
8. (informal, usually in the plural) The attractive shape of a woman's body.

verb

1. (transitive) To bend; to crook.
   to curve a line
   to curve a pipe
2. (transitive) To cause to swerve from a straight course.
   to curve a ball in pitching it
3. (intransitive) To bend or turn gradually from a given direction.
   the road curves to the right
4. (transitive) To grade on a curve (bell curve of a normal distribution).
   The teacher will curve the test.
5. (transitive) (slang) To reject, to turn down romantic advances.
   I was once curved three times by the same woman.