curlicue

English

Alternative forms

curlycue

Etymology

From curly +‎ cue.

Noun

curlicue (plural curlicues)

A fancy twisting or curling shape usually made from a series of spirals and loops.
- 1917, Christopher Morley, chapter 3, in Parnassus on Wheels, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC:
  I put in plenty of curlicues after the figures so that no one could raise the check into $400,000; then I got out my old rattan suit case and put in some clothes.
- 1917, Anna Alice Chapin, Greenwich Village‎^[1], page 45:
  There was not the slightest use in trying to make its twisty curlicue streets conform to any engineering plan on earth; so those sensible old-time folk didn't try.
- 2015 August 6, Leslie Felperin, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl review – a scaldingly honest coming-of-age comedy”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:
  (Curlicue hand-drawn cartoons blossom frequently throughout, touching base with the source material’s distinctive visual style while adding an aptly hallucinogenic vibe when required.)

Derived terms

curlicue fractal

Translations

fancy curling shape

Bulgarian: завъртулка (bg) f (zavǎrtulka)
Finnish: koukero
German: Schnörkel (de) m

Verb

curlicue (third-person singular simple present curlicues, present participle curlicuing, simple past and past participle curlicued)

(transitive and intransitive) To make or adorn (something) with curlicues, or as if with curlicues.
- 1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), pages 231–232:
  A chandelier the shape of an anchor, hanging over Smith's head as he passed out through this vestibule. Walls curlicued with comb marks of some fancy plasterer.
- 1992, Donna Tartt, The Secret History:
  I was looking, obliquely, at Bunny slumped over his bowl when all of a sudden, in the window behind his head, I saw the distant figure of Mr. Hatch, walking across the open field beyond the garden, carrying the dark, curlicued ruins of the Malacca chair to the rubbish heap.
- 2007 October 15, The New York Times, “New CDs”, in New York Times‎^[3]:
  “Here We Go Again” is the gentlest kiss-off imaginable, with strings and harp and curlicued guitars cushioning Ms. Stone’s farewell […]