curl

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
curl/kɜːl/

▶verb

• 1 form or cause to form a curved or spiral shape.

  ■ (curl up) sit or lie with the knees drawn up.

• 2 move or cause to move in a spiral or curved course.

• 3 (in weight training) lift (a weight) using only the hands, wrists, and forearms.

• 4 play at the game of curling.

▶noun

• 1 a thing forming a spiral or coil, especially a lock of hair.

  ■ the tendency of hair to form curls.

• 2 a weightlifting exercise involving movement of only the hands, wrists, and forearms.

• 3 Mathematics a function giving a measure of the rotation of a vector field.

– phrases
make one's hair curl informal shock or horrify one.

– origin ME: from obs. crulle ‘curly’, from MDu. krul.