What is "curl"

Curl \Curl\, v. i.

1. To contract or bend into curls or ringlets, as hair; to grow in curls or spirals, as a vine; to be crinkled or contorted; to have a curly appearance; as, leaves lie curled on the ground.

   Thou seest it [hair] will not curl by nature.
   --Shak.

2. To move in curves, spirals, or undulations; to contract in curving outlines; to bend in a curved form; to make a curl or curls. ``Cirling billows.''
   --Dryden.

   Then round her slender waist he curled.
   --Dryden.

   Curling smokes from village tops are seen.
   --Pope.

   Gayly curl the waves before each dashing prow.
   --Byron.

   He smiled a king of sickly smile, and curled up on the floor.
   --Bret Harte.

3. To play at the game called curling. [Scot.]

Curl \Curl\ (k[^u]rl), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Curled (k[^u]rld); p. pr. & vb. n. Curling.] [Akin to D. krullen, Dan. kr["o]lle, dial. Sw. krulla to curl, crisp; possibly akin to E. crook. Cf. Curl, n., Cruller.]

1. To twist or form into ringlets; to crisp, as the hair.

   But curl their locks with bodkins and with braid.
   --Cascoigne.

2. To twist or make onto coils, as a serpent's body.

   Of his tortuous train, Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve.
   --Milton.

3. To deck with, or as with, curls; to ornament.

   Thicker than the snaky locks That curledMeg[ae]ra.
   --Milton.

   Curling with metaphors a plain intention.
   --Herbert.

4. To raise in waves or undulations; to ripple.

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

5. (Hat Making) To shape (the brim) into a curve.

Curl \Curl\ (k[^u]rl), n. [Akin to D. krul, Dan. kr["o]lle. See Curl, v. ]

1. A ringlet, especially of hair; anything of a spiral or winding form.

   Under a coronet, his flowing hair In curls on either cheek played.
   --Milton.

2. An undulating or waving line or streak in any substance, as wood, glass, etc.; flexure; sinuosity.

   If the glass of the prisms . . . be without those numberless waves or curls which usually arise from the sand holes.
   --Sir I. Newton.

3. A disease in potatoes, in which the leaves, at their first appearance, seem curled and shrunken.

   Blue curls. (Bot.) See under Blue.

mid-15c., metathesis of crulle (c.1300), probably from an unrecorded Old English word or from Middle Dutch krul "curly," from Proto-Germanic *krusl- (cognates: East Frisian krull "lock of hair," Middle High German krol, Norwegian krull, Danish krølle "curl"). The noun is recorded from c.1600.

n. A piece or lock of curling hair; a ringlet. vb. (lb en transitive) To cause to move in a curve.

1. n. a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles [syn: coil, whorl, roll, curlicue, ringlet, gyre, scroll]

2. American chemist who with Richard Smalley and Harold Kroto discovered fullerenes and opened a new branch of chemistry (born in 1933) [syn: Robert Curl, Robert F. Curl, Robert Floyd Curl Jr.]

3. a strand or cluster of hair [syn: lock, ringlet, whorl]

1. v. form a curl, curve, or kink; "the cigar smoke curled up at the ceiling" [syn: curve, kink]

2. shape one's body into a curl; "She curled farther down under the covers"; "She fell and drew in" [syn: curl up, draw in]

3. wind around something in coils or loops [syn: coil, loop] [ant: uncoil]

4. twist or roll into coils or ringlets; "curl my hair, please" [syn: wave]

5. play the Scottish game of curling

In vector calculus, the curl is a vector operator that describes the infinitesimal rotation of a 3-dimensional vector field. At every point in the field, the curl of that point is represented by a vector. The attributes of this vector (length and direction) characterize the rotation at that point.

The direction of the curl is the axis of rotation, as determined by the right-hand rule, and the magnitude of the curl is the magnitude of rotation. If the vector field represents the flow velocity of a moving fluid, then the curl is the circulation density of the fluid. A vector field whose curl is zero is called irrotational. The curl is a form of differentiation for vector fields. The corresponding form of the fundamental theorem of calculus is Stokes' theorem, which relates the surface integral of the curl of a vector field to the line integral of the vector field around the boundary curve.

The alternative terminology rotor or rotational and alternative notations rot F and ∇ × F are often used (the former especially in many European countries, the latter, using the del operator and the cross product, is more used in other countries) for curl and curl F.

Unlike the gradient and divergence, curl does not generalize as simply to other dimensions; some generalizations are possible, but only in three dimensions is the geometrically defined curl of a vector field again a vector field. This is a similar phenomenon as in the 3 dimensional cross product, and the connection is reflected in the notation ∇ × for the curl.

The name "curl" was first suggested by James Clerk Maxwell in 1871 but the concept was apparently first used in the construction of an optical field theory by James MacCullagh in 1839.

Curl or CURL may refer to:

is a brand of cheesy flavour corn puffs snack in Japan sold by Meiji. It also sports its own mascot, Karl, in which the snack may be romanized Karl instead. Although Curl comes in several flavors, the two dominant ones are lightly salted and cheese.

It has been on sale in Japan continuously since 1968.

Curl is a reflective object-oriented programming language for interactive web applications whose goal is to provide a smoother transition between formatting and programming. It makes it possible to embed complex objects in simple documents without needing to switch between programming languages or development platforms. The Curl implementation initially consisted of just an interpreter, but a compiler was added later.

Curl combines text markup (as in HTML), scripting (as in JavaScript), and heavy-duty computing (as in Java, C#, or C++) within one unified framework. It is used in a range of internal enterprise, B2B, and B2C applications.

Curl programs may be compiled into Curl applets, that are viewed using the Curl RTE, a runtime environment with a plugin for web browsers. Currently, it is supported on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Curl supports "detached applets", which is a web deployed applet which runs on the user's desktop independent of a browser window much as in Silverlight 3 and Adobe AIR.

A curl route, also called a hitch or hook (sometimes a button hook), is a pattern run by a receiver in American football, where the receiver appears to be running a fly pattern but after a set amount of steps or yards will quickly stop and turn around, looking for a pass. This generally works best when the defending corner or safety commits himself to guarding the fly and is unable to stop quickly enough to defend the pass. A "curl out" on the sideline is often referred to as a comeback route.

The curl is a pattern used frequently by the West Coast offensive scheme, where quick and accurate passes are favored.

This route can also be used in what is called a screen, where while the receiver is receiving the pass, one or more linemen, tight ends, or running backs will run in the direction of the receiver in order to block the initial pursuing defenders so that the receiver has time and space to be able to run after the catch.

Curl or bend in association football is spin on the ball which will make it change direction, called a 'screw shot' in the 19th century. When kicking the ball, the inside of the foot is often used to curl the ball, but this can also be done by using the outside of the foot. Similar to curl, the ball can also swerve in the air, without the spin on the ball which makes the ball curl.

Curling or bending the ball is especially evident from free kicks, shots from outside the penalty area and crosses. Differences between balls can also affect the amount of swerve and curl: traditional leather footballs were too heavy to curl without great effort, whereas the lighter modern footballs curl with a lower effort threshold. As a general rule, the lighter and smoother the ball the more deviation there is.