\Cu"ri*ous\ (k?"r?-?s), a. [OF. curios, curius, F.
curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See
{Cure}.]
1. Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct;
   careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [Obs.]
         Little curious in her clothes.        --Fuller.
         How shall we, If he be curious, work upon his faith?
                                               --Beau. & Fl.
2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed;
   elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill.
         To devise curious works.              --Ex. xxxv. 32
         His body couched in a curious bed.    --Shak.
3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to
   research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; --
   sometimes with after or of.
         It is a pity a gentleman so very curious after
         things that were elegant and beautiful should not
         have been as curious as to their origin, their uses,
         and their natural history.            --Woodward.
4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise;
   inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or
   plain; strange; rare. ``Acurious tale'' --Shak.
         A multitude of curious analogies.     --Macaulay.
         Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.
                                               --E. A. Poe.
         Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of
         learning or sciense often bring to light curious
         results.                              --C. J. Smith.
{Curious arts}, magic. [Obs.]
         Many . . . which used curious arts brought their
         books together, and burned them.      --Acts xix.
                                               19.
Syn: Inquisitive; prying. See {Inquisitive}.