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Curious vs Prying - What's the difference?

curious | prying | Related terms |

As an adjective curious

is fastidious, particular; demanding a high standard of excellence, difficult to satisfy.

As a verb prying is

present participle of lang=en.

As a noun prying is

the act of one who pries.

curious

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (lb) Fastidious, particular; demanding a high standard of excellence, difficult to satisfy.
  • *1612 , , Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia , in Kupperman 1988, p.172:
  • *:But departing thence, when we found no houses, we were not curious in any weather, to lie 3 or 4 nights together upon any shore under the trees by a good fire.
  • *(Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)
  • *:little curious in her clothes
  • Inquisitive; tending to ask questions, investigate, or explore.
  • :
  • Prompted by curiosity.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.ix:
  • *:But he to shift their curious request, / Gan causen, why she could not come in place.
  • Unusual; odd; out of the ordinary; bizarre.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile?; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.
  • (lb) Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed; elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill.
  • *(Bible), (w) xxxv.32
  • *:to devise curious works
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:his body couched in a curious bed

    • Related terms

    * curiosity (noun) * curio

    prying

    English

    Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of one who pries.
  • * 1992 , Judith Jarvis Thomson, The Realm of Rights (page 280)
    • That it is wrongful to do a thing in that it is grubby in the way in which pryings for the sake of prurient interest are grubby, does not by itself make doing the thing an infringement of a claim.