資料來源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.]

            Little curious in her clothes.        --Fuller.

            How shall we, If he be curious, work upon his faith?
                                                  --Beau. & Fl.

   2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed;
      elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill.

            To devise curious works.              --Ex. xxxv. 32

            His body couched in a curious bed.    --Shak.

   3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to
      research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; --
      sometimes with after or of.

            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.

   4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise;
      inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or
      plain; strange; rare. ``Acurious tale'' --Shak.

            A multitude of curious analogies.     --Macaulay.

            Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.
                                                  --E. A. Poe.

            Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of
            learning or sciense often bring to light curious
            results.                              --C. J. Smith.

   {Curious arts}, magic. [Obs.]

            Many . . . which used curious arts brought their
            books together, and burned them.      --Acts xix.
                                                  19.

   Syn: Inquisitive; prying. See {Inquisitive}.