curb
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɝb/
ipa: /kɜːb/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)b
homophone: kerb
homophone: kirb
Forms: form: curbs
form: curbing
form: curbed
form: curbed
form: kerb
form: kirb
Etymology: From Middle French courbe (“curve, curved object”), from Latin curvus (“bent, crooked, curved”). Doublet of curve.
Senses: examples: text: Curb your dog
text: Where pinching want must curb her warm desires.
ref: 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):
text: But the village's growth was curbed by the cliffs that restricted onward exploration for visitors, while goods such as coal and lime, which had arrived by water, were being transported up the severe incline to the town of Lynton by horse and cart.
ref: 2021 January 13, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Spectacular funiculars”, in RAIL, issue 922, page 53:
synonyms: behedge
curtail
limit
glosses: To check, restrain or control.
glosses: To rein in.
glosses: To furnish with a curb, as a well; to restrain by a curb, as a bank of earth.
glosses: Ellipsis of curb stomp.
examples: text: As had become her habit, Jane rove past her destination and curbed the car on a side street a block and a half away.
ref: 2017, Dean Koontz, The Silent Corner, page 34:
glosses: To bring to a stop beside a curb.
glosses: To damage vehicle wheels or tires by running into or over a pavement curb.
examples: text: [B]y crooked and curbed lines, wee looke within the water; for our eie ſight doth bend and turne againe perforce, by reason that the matter of the water is more thicke; which is the cauſe, that we ſee the mariners oare in the ſea a farre off, as it were crooked.
ref: 1603, Plutarch, “The Third Booke of Philosophers Opinions. Chap. V. Of the Rainbow.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 828:
synonyms: word: bow
word: flex
word: incurvate
word: bend
word: bow
word: courb
word: curb
word: curl
word: curve
word: crook
word: flex
word: incurvate
glosses: To bend or curve.
examples: text: Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, / Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
synonyms: bend
fawn
stoop
glosses: To crouch; to cringe.
Synonyms: word: behedge
word: guard
word: bind
word: chasten
word: check
word: contain
word: vanquish
word: cork
word: curb
word: bury
word: curtail
word: dampen
word: hamshackle
word: hold back
word: hold down
word: limit
word: repress
word: restrain
word: restrict
word: shackle
word: stay
word: stifle
word: stop
word: straiten
word: subdue
word: suppress
word: throttle
word: underbring
word: withhold
word: withstrain
Hypernyms: word: control
word: hinder
Hyponyms: word: bridle
word: gag
word: muzzle
word: silence
Derived terms: curbable
curber
uncurb
Related terms: curby
curvature
curve
curvy