Found 1 items, similar to Curious arts.
English → English (gcide) Definition: Curious arts 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.] [1913 Webster] Little curious in her clothes. --Fuller. [1913 Webster] How shall we, If he be curious, work upon his faith? --Beau. & Fl. [1913 Webster] 2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed; elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill. [1913 Webster] To devise curious works. --Ex. xxxv. 32 [1913 Webster] His body couched in a curious bed. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; -- sometimes with after or of. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] 4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise; inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or plain; strange; rare. “Acurious tale” --Shak. [1913 Webster] A multitude of curious analogies. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. --E. A. Poe. [1913 Webster] Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of learning or sciense often bring to light curious results. --C. J. Smith. [1913 Webster] Curious arts, magic. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Many . . . which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them. --Acts xix. 19. Syn: Inquisitive; prying. See Inquisitive. [1913 Webster]