CURIOSITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Curiosity

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/kjˌʊriˈɑsəti/ Listen

noun

Curiosity n. (pl. curiosities)

The state or quality or being curious; nicety; accuracy; exactness; elaboration. (Obs.) "When thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity." "A screen accurately cut in tapiary work... with great curiosity."

Disposition to inquire, investigate, or seek after knowledge; a desire to gratify the mind with new information or objects of interest; inquisitiveness.

That which is curious, or fitted to excite or reward attention. "We took a ramble together to see the curiosities of this great town." "There hath been practiced also a curiosity, to set a tree upon the north side of a wall, and, at a little hieght, to draw it through the wall, etc."

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Etymology of 'Curiosity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Curiosity" Quotes from Famous Books

... scene in the dressing-room when the company had been in Baltimore. Lois Denham, duly the recipient of the sunburst which her friend Izzy had promised her, had unfortunately, in a spirit of girlish curiosity, taken it to a jeweller to be priced, and the jeweller had blasted her young life by declaring it a paste imitation. Jill recalled how the stricken girl—previous to calling Izzy on the long distance and telling him a number of ...

— The Little Warrior - (U.K. Title: Jill the Reckless) • P. G. Wodehouse

... the beehive on to a ledge of rock about six feet wide, below which there is a drop of ten or twelve feet. From the absence of any signs of bears about the roof of the cave I assumed that the cave was as usual uninhabited, but I thought I would gratify my curiosity by looking into it, so I got down on to the ledge, and was imprudent enough to leave my guns with the people on the roof above. As there were no signs of bears on the ledge or at the entrance, I told one of ...

— Gold, Sport, And Coffee Planting In Mysore • Robert H. Elliot

... was immensely interested in all the practical details of working which make this handling of grain a living and dramatic thing, showing, as usual, that active curiosity for workaday facts that is essential to the ...

— Westward with the Prince of Wales • W. Douglas Newton

... had satisfied our curiosity or admiration in looking at the troops, the windows were shut down, and all sat down to business. His Highness began by asking my name, when I came, and what I was going to be about? The Consul replied to these first and usual ...

— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson

... a certain garden he heard a sound of sobbing; and curiosity, of which he was largely made, caused him to climb the old brick wall that he might discover the cause. What he saw from his perch was a garden laid out in neat plots between grassy walks edged with double daisies, red, white and pink, or bordered ...

— Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard • Eleanor Farjeon

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