curve
part of speech
noun (a curve, curves); verb (curve, curves, curved, curving)
meaning for a pupil
1) A line that bends smoothly without any sharp corners, like part of a circle. tree →
2) A bend in a road, river or path. tree →
3) As a verb, to bend in a smooth line. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths, a curve is a line that is not straight; circles and ovals are made of curves, and a graph line can curve. In safety lessons, you cross roads away from curves, because drivers cannot see you. In science, a ball thrown in the air follows a curve. Phrases: a curved line, a sharp curve, curve around, around the curve, a learning curve.
examples
- Draw a curve, not a straight line. tree →
- The road curves around the lake. tree →
- Don't cross near a curve; drivers can't see you. tree →
- A circle is one long curve. tree →
- The rainbow made a curve across the sky. tree →
- The ball curved into the goal. tree →
- The curve of the broken dome was above his head. tree →
note
Countable noun; regular verb (curved, curving). "Curved" is the adjective: a curved edge. In maths, faces can be flat or curved: a cylinder has two flat faces and one curved surface. Safety: cross where you can see far in both directions, not on a bend.
In the corpora
- Birds of prey, also called raptors, hunt other animals with sharp eyes, hooked beaks and gripping feet with curved talons.
- Long curved claws hook over branches, so a sloth can hang upside down for hours, even asleep, without tiring.
- Raptors held their big curved toe claw off the ground while walking and probably used it to pin down prey, like hawks today.
- Grizzly claws can be about 10 centimetres long for digging, while black bears have shorter, curved claws for climbing.
- Cat claws curve backwards, so they grip well going up but not going down head first, and cats come down trees backwards.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «curve» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.