curve

/kɜːv//kɝv/

noun

1
A gentle bend, such as in a road.
“You should slow down when approaching a curve.”
2
A simple figure containing no straight portions and no angles; a curved line.
“She scribbled a curve on the paper.”
3
A grading system based on the scale of performance of a group used to normalize a right-skewed grade distribution (with more lower scores) into a bell curve, so that more can receive higher grades, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject.
“The teacher was nice and graded the test on a curve.”
4
A continuous map from a one-dimensional space to a multidimensional space.
5
A one-dimensional figure of non-zero length; the graph of a continuous map from a one-dimensional space.
6
An algebraic curve; a polynomial relation of the planar coordinates.
7
A one-dimensional continuum.
8
(usually in the plural) The attractive shape of a woman's body.

1
To bend; to crook.
“to curve a line”
2
To cause to swerve from a straight course.
“to curve a ball in pitching it”
3
To bend or turn gradually from a given direction.
“the road curves to the right”
4
To grade on a curve (bell curve of a normal distribution).
“The teacher will curve the test.”
5
To reject, to turn down romantic advances.
“I was once curved three times by the same woman.”

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