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Curious. To do curious, verbal phr. (common).—To act strangely.
Curl. Out of curl, adv. phr.
(common).—Out of sorts; out of
condition.
To CURL UP, verbal phr. (familiar).—To be silent; to 'shut up.'
To curl one's hair, verb. phr. (common).—To administer chastisement; to 'go for' one.
To curl one's liver or to HAVE ONE'S LIVER CURLED, verbal phr. (common).—To make one feel intensely. Cf., Turn THE LIVER [q.v.).
1877. S.L.Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Life on the Mississippi, pp. 414-415. This is sport that makes the body's very liver curl with enjoyment.
Curle, subs. (old).—Clippings of
money.—Grose,
Curl Paper, subs. (common).—Paper
for the W.C.; toilet paper;
'wipe - bummatory' (Urquhart),
or 'sanitary' paper; bum-fodder;
bumf; ammunition.
Curlycues or Carlicues, subs.
(common).—Fantastic ornaments
worn on the person or used in
architecture; also, by implication,
a strange line of conduct.
Used by Burns in The Merry
Muses.
1858. Home Journal, 24 July. Architects have a wonderful predilection for all manner of curlycues and breaks in your roof.
CURRANTS AND PLUMS, sub. phr.
(rhyming slang).—A threepenny
bit; or thrums (q.v.).
Currency, subs. (Australian).—A
colonist born in Australia,
those of English birth being
sterling (q.v.). [In allusion to
the colonial and home mintages,
which, identical in value, present
one or two strongly marked
points of difference.]
1856. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. 1xxxv. When gold was found in Victoria he crossed over to that port and robbed. One day he robbed the tent of an old man, a native of the colony, who was digging there with his son, a lad of fifteen. Now these currency lads are very sharp and determined.
Curse. Not to care or be
worth A curse, phr. (common).
—To care or be worth little—or
nothing at all. [Curse may
either = (1) the wild cherry; or
(2) a corruption of A.S. cerse,
watercress. Cf., Continental
(q.v.).
1362. William Langland, Vision of Piers Ploughman. Wisdom and witt nowe is not worth a kerse, But if it be carded with cootis as clothers Kemble their woole.
1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xvi., p. 124. With regard to such questions . . . which one can't be expected to CARE A CURSE ABOUT.
187(?). G. R. Sims, Dagonet Ballads (In the Workhouse). I care not a curse for the guardians.
Curse of God, subs. phr. (old).—A
cockade.—Lexicon Balatronicum
[1811].
Curse of Scotland, subs. phr.
(popular).—The nine of
diamonds. [The suggested derivations
are inconclusive. The
locution has nothing to do with
Culloden and the Duke of
Cumberland, for the card was
nicknamed the justice-clerk,
in allusion to the Lord Justice-Clerk
Ormistone, who, for his
severity in suppressing the
