Other forms: curling, curled, curls
A curl is a lock of hair that turns in a spiral. Tight curls, a single curl, curls everywhere.
Hair curls because the follicle is oval rather than round, which is why curly hair is genuinely different in structure rather than merely in appearance. As a verb, to curl is to form or make into curls, and also to move in a curve: smoke curled upward. Curl up means to settle into a ball. Note curler, curly; and curling, the sport played on ice with stones and brooms.
1nouncurlA lock of hair that turns in a spiral.
“A curl of dark hair fell across her forehead.”
2verbformTo form into curves or a ball.
“The cat curled up in front of the fire and went to sleep.”
curl is a spiral shape.
Middle Dutch crul comes from a Germanic root meaning bent or crooked. The word arrived as an adjective meaning curly and English made the noun and verb out of it afterwards.
Proto-Germanic
*kruzlǭ — bent or crooked object, curl
Middle Dutch
crul
Middle English
crulle — curled, curly
English, today
curl
Built from
From of Middle English crulle (“curled, curly”), of uncertain origin but probably from an unrecorded Old English word or from Middle Dutch crul, crulle (“curl”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic kruzlǭ (“bent or crooked object, curl”), connected to krūsą (“curl”), of unknown origin. Cognate with stq Krulle (“curl, lock”), West Frisian krul (“curl”), Dutch krul (“curl”), German Low German Krull (“curl”), dialectal German Krolle (“curl”), Danish krølle (“curl”), Norwegian Bokmål krøll (“curl”). Related also to stq Kruus (“curl”), German kraus (“frizzy, crumpled, curly”), Danish krus (“curl”), Swedish krusa (“to crimp, curl”). Compare also Gothic 𐌺𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽 (“to grind, crush, gnash”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA