curve

Forms

1.A gentle bend, such as in a road.
- You should slow down when approaching a curve.
2.A simple figure containing no straight portions and no angles; a curved line.
- She scribbled a curve on the paper.
3.A continuous map from a one-dimensional space to a multidimensional space.
4.A grading system based on the scale of performance of a group used to normalize a right-skewed grade distribution (with more lower scores) into a bell curve, so that more can receive higher grades, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject.
- The teacher was nice and graded the test on a curve.

1.To bend; to crook.
2.To cause to swerve from a straight course.
3.To bend or turn gradually from a given direction.
- The double-track branch curves away southwards at the south end of the station and runs on a banked down gradient gradually losing sight of the main line.
- Even without mobilization of the bone, the median eyelid angle can be deplaced in the nasal direction. For this purpose, we inserted a heart-shaped cartilage implant, curved toward the caruncula.
4.To grade on a curve (bell curve of a normal distribution).
- The teacher will curve the test.

Uncommon· #3593

Attested since the 1690s, from Latin curvus (“bent, curved”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to bend, curve, turn”) + *-wós.

Doublet of curb, shrink, carcer, and cancer.