curious
    adj 1: beyond or deviating from the usual or expected; "a
           curious hybrid accent"; "her speech has a funny twang";
           "they have some funny ideas about war"; "had an odd
           name"; "the peculiar aromatic odor of cloves"; "something
           definitely queer about this town"; "what a rum fellow";
           "singular behavior" [syn: curious, funny, odd,
           peculiar, queer, rum, rummy, singular]
    2: eager to investigate and learn or learn more (sometimes about
       others' concerns); "a curious child is a teacher's delight";
       "a trap door that made me curious"; "curious investigators";
       "traffic was slowed by curious rubberneckers"; "curious about
       the neighbor's doings" [ant: incurious]
    3: having curiosity aroused; eagerly interested in learning
       more; "a trap door that made me curious"

Curious \Cu"ri*ous\ (k?"r?-?s), a. [OF. curios, curius, F.
   curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See
   Cure.]
   1. Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct;
      careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [Obs.]
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            Little curious in her clothes.        --Fuller.
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            How shall we,
            If he be curious, work upon his faith? --Beau. & Fl.
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   2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed;
      elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill.
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            To devise curious works.              --Ex. xxxv. 32
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            His body couched in a curious bed.    --Shak.
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   3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to
      research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; --
      sometimes with after or of.
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            It is a pity a gentleman so very curious after
            things that were elegant and beautiful should not
            have been as curious as to their origin, their uses,
            and their natural history.            --Woodward.
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   4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise;
      inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or
      plain; strange; rare. "Acurious tale" --Shak.
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            A multitude of curious analogies.     --Macaulay.
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            Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.
                                                  --E. A. Poe.
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            Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of
            learning or sciense often bring to light curious
            results.                              --C. J. Smith.
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   Curious arts, magic. [Obs.]
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            Many . . . which used curious arts brought their
            books together, and burned them.      --Acts xix.
                                                  19.

   Syn: Inquisitive; prying. See Inquisitive.
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