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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Adiabatic \Ad'i*a*bat"ic\, adjective [Gr. ? not passable; 'a priv. + ? through + ? to go.] (Physics) Not giving out or receiving heat. -- {Ad'i*a*bat'ic*al*ly}, adverb [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Note: The adiabatic expansion of carbon dioxide from a compressed container causes the temperature of the gas to decrease rapidly below its freezing point, resulting in the familiar carbon dioxide ''snow'' emitted by carbon dioxide fire extinguishers. [PJC.]
{Adiabatic line} or {curve}, a curve exhibiting the variations of pressure and volume of a fluid when it expands without either receiving or giving out heat. --Rankine.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Curve \Curve\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Curved} (k[^u]rvd); p. pr. & vb. n. {Curving}.] [L. curvare., fr. curvus. See {Curve}, adjective, {Curb}.] To bend; to crook; as, to curve a line; to curve a pipe; to cause to swerve from a straight course; as, to curve a ball in pitching it.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Curve \Curve\ (k[^u]rv), adjective [L. curvus bent, curved. See {Cirb}.] Bent without angles; crooked; curved; as, a curve line; a curve surface.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Curve \Curve\, noun [See {Curve}, adjective, {Cirb}.]
1. A bending without angles; that which is bent; a flexure; as, a curve in a railway or canal.
2. (Geom.) A line described according to some low, and having no finite portion of it a straight line.
{Axis of a curve}. See under {Axis}.
{Curve of quickest descent}. See {Brachystochrone}.
{Curve tracing} (Math.), the process of determining the shape, location, singular points, and other peculiarities of a curve from its equation.
{Plane curve} (Geom.), a curve such that when a plane passes through three points of the curve, it passes through all the other points of the curve. Any other curve is called a {curve of double curvature}, or a {twisted curve}.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Curve \Curve\, verb (used without an object) To bend or turn gradually from a given direction; as, the road curves to the right.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
curve
noun
1: the trace of a point whose direction of motion changes [syn: {curved shape}] [ant: {straight line}]
2: a line on a graph representing data
3: a baseball thrown with spin so that its path curves as it approach the batter [syn: {curve ball}, {breaking ball}, {bender}]
4: the property possessed by the curving of a line or surface [syn: {curvature}]
5: curved segment (of a road or river or railroad track etc.) [syn: {bend}]
verb
1: turn sharply; change direction abruptly; "The car cut to the left at the intersection"; "The motorbike veered to the right" [syn: {swerve}, {sheer}, {trend}, {veer}, {slue}, {slew}, {cut}]
2: extend in curves and turns; "The road winds around the lake" [syn: {wind}]
3: form an arch or curve; "her back arches"; "her hips curve nicely" [syn: {arch}, {arc}]
4: bend or cause to bend; "He crooked his index finger"; "the road curved sharply" [syn: {crook}]
5: form a curl, curve, or kink; "the cigar smoke curled up at the ceiling" [syn: {curl}, {kink}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
198 Moby Thesaurus words for "curve": aberrancy, aberration, arc, arch, artful dodge, artifice, bag of tricks, bear off, bend, bend back, bias, blind, bluff, bosey, bow, bowl, branch off, branching off, cast, catacaustic, catch, catenary, caustic, change of pace, change the bearing, change-up, chicanery, chouse, chuck, chunk, circle, circuit, circuitousness, circumference, coil, compass, conchoid, corner, crook, curl, curvation, curvature, curve-ball, declination, decurve, deflect, depart from, departure, design, detour, deviance, deviancy, deviate, deviation, device, deviousness, diacaustic, diffract, diffuse, digress, digression, dirty deal, dirty trick, discursion, disperse, distort, divagate, divagation, divaricate, divarication, diverge, divergence, diversion, divert, dodge, dogleg, dome, double, downcurve, drift, drifting, ellipse, embow, errantry, excursion, excursus, exorbitation, fast deal, fastball, feint, festoon, fetch, ficelle, flex, fling, flip, forward pass, gambit, gimmick, googly, hairpin, heave, heel, hocus-pocus, hook, hump, hunch, hurl, hyperbola, incurvate, incurvation, incurvature, incurve, indirection, inflect, inflection, joker, juggle, knuckleball, lateral, lateral pass, lituus, lob, loop, obliquity, outcurve, parabola, pass, peg, pererration, pitch, ploy, pull, put, rambling, recurve, reflect, reflex, refract, retroflex, rondure, round, ruse, sag, scatter, scheme, screwball, scurvy trick, serve, service, sheer, shift, shifting, shifting course, shifting path, shot-put, shy, sinker, sinus, skew, slant, sleight, sleight of hand, sleight-of-hand trick, slider, sling, spiral, spitball, spitter, stratagem, straying, subterfuge, swag, sweep, swerve, swerving, swinging, tack, throw, toss, tracery, trend, trick, turn, turn aside, turning, twist, upcurve, variation, vary, vault, veer, wandering, warp, wile, wind, yaw, zigzag
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