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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)