curve

curve vb Curve, bend, twist are comparable when they mean to swerve or cause to swerve or deviate from a straight line or a normal direction or course.

Curve is the word of widest application, and it may describe any deviation or swerving from the straight or level that suggests an arc of a circle or an ellipse

{

his lips were curved in a smile— Kenneth Roberts

}

{

over the roof a few swallows were curving— Glasgow

}

Bend is likely to refer to an angular turning or a curving at a certain point under a degree of force or pressure

{

bend the steel strips as required

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{

bend the glass tube at the point indicated

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In extended use bend may imply some forcing or distortion of materials or of facts or some pressure on or persuasion of people

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was somewhat prone to bend logic to meet the demands of argument— E. S. Bates

}

{

not all prescriptive speech aims purely and typically at bending the hearer's attitudes to those of the speaker— Falk

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Twist is likely to suggest a force having a spiraling effect throughout the object involved rather than an effect at one point, and it may imply, especially in extended use, a wrenching out of shape or distorting rather than a giving of a desired or desirable shape

{

the light steel rods twisted together by the exp!osion

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{

hands gnarled and twisted with age

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{

mend a break in a fence by twisting two wires together

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an unconquerable confidence . . . which understates, or twists into a wry joke, the fatal moment of war— Times Lit. Sup.

}

Analogous words: deflect, divert, *turn: *swerve, veer, deviate

curve n Curve, arc, bow, arch mean a line or something which follows a line that is neither straight nor angular but rounded.

Curve is the general term and the most widely applicable. It may be used in reference to a line, edge, outline, turn, or formation that keeps changing its direction without interruption or angle

{

the curve of a ship's side

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{

the deep curve of the back of a wing chair

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a serpentine curve

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{

the curve of the greyhound is not only the line of beauty, but a line which suggests motion— Jefferies

}

Arc is used specifically to denote a part or section of the circumference of a circle; in more general use it is applied to things that have or assume a strongly curved form

{

with eyebrows raised in a quizzical arc

}

Bow, unlike the preceding words, has always designated concrete things that are curved, and draws its implications especially from its reference to the archer's bow with its long, gradually curving strip of wood that may be bent almost into a U. Hence many things which resemble an archer's bent bow are describable or designatable as a bow

{

the bows of spectacles

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{

an oxbow

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{

bowlegs

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{

the moon, like to a silver bow, new-bent in heaven— Shak.

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Arch, though once equivalent to arc in denotation, is now basically applied to a supporting structure built up of wedge-shaped pieces of stone or other substance in such a way that they form a semicircular curve with a keystone at the apex or two opposite curves with a joint at the apex and provide an opening underneath (as for a window, a door, or a passageway). Hence arch is applied to any similarly curved structure

{

the arch of the eyebrow

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{

the arch of the foot

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{

an arch formed by meeting tree-tops

}

Analogous words: circuit, compass, *circumference