Curl

 Related e Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Kunstformen der Natur (1904) by Ernst Haeckel
Curly Locks
1. A piece or lock of curling hair; a ringlet.
2. A curved stroke or shape.
• 1995, John Curtis, Julian Reade, & Dominique Collon, Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum‎, page 184:
Template:... the backs of their necks and their forelegs are decorated with curls and their necks and bodies are covered with fine, undulating lines.
3. A spin making the trajectory of an object curve.
• 1909, Harold Horsfall Hilton, The Six Handicap Golfer's Companion[1], page 38:
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 Template:...
4. Template:Curling Movement of a moving rock away from a straight line.
5. Template:Weightlifting Any exercise performed by bending the arm, wrist, or leg on the exertion against resistance, especially those that train the biceps.
• 2007 (Jan/Feb), Jon Crosby, "Your Winter Muscle Makeover", Men's Health, page 54:
Now do a curl and an overhead press, keeping your palms facing in.
6. Template:Calculus The vector field denoting the rotationality of a given vector field.
The curl of the vector field $\vec{F}=(xyz,xyz,xyz)$ is the vector field $\vec{\nabla}\times\vec{F}=(xz-xy,xy-yz,yz-xz)$.
• 1995, Erich Prisner, Graph dynamics:
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.
7. Template:Calculus The vector operator, denoted $\rm{curl}\;$ or $\vec{\nabla}\times\vec{\left(\cdot\right)}$, that generates this field.
8. Template:Agriculture Any of various diseases of plants causing the leaves or shoots to curl up; often specifically the potato curl.
• 1840, "Farmers' Department", The Family Magazine, volume 1, page 227:
These potatoes, however, planted the next year, have a fair yield, untouched by the curl.