Other forms: curbing, curbed, curbs
A curb is the raised stone edge where the pavement drops to the road. Step off the curb, park at the curb, mind the curb.
This is the American spelling; British English uses kerb for the stone and curb only for the verb. To curb something is to restrain or limit it: curb spending, curb your enthusiasm, curb inflation. That is much the commoner sense in writing. Note curbside, meaning at the edge of the road, and that a curb is also part of a horse's bit — a chain under the jaw used to check the animal, which is where the verb comes from.
1nouncurbThe raised stone edge where a pavement meets the road.
“The car was parked with two wheels up on the curb.”
synonyms: kerb
2verbrestrainTo restrain or limit something.
“They curbed spending in every department except their own.”
curb is an edge, or a restraint.
Also accepted in games: kerb
CURB → held to the CURVE, never off it
He pulls hard for the road, and the hand on the lead brings him back to the curve of the path every single time.
hooks ontocurve
Latin curvus, bent, gave French courbe and then English curb — first the curved chain on a horse's bridle. Restraining a horse gave the verb, and the stone edge was named for its curve much later.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)ker- (turn)
Latin
curvus — bent, crooked, curved
Middle French
courbe — curve, curved object
English, today
curb
From Middle French courbe (“curve, curved object”), from Latin curvus (“bent, crooked, curved”). a doublet of curve.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA