1. A strong desire to See Something novel, or to discover something unknown, either by research or inquiry; a desire to gratify the senses with a sight of what is new or unusual, or to gratify the mind with new discoveries; inquisitiveness. A mans curiosity leads him to view the ruins of Balbec, to investigate the origin of Homer, to discover the component parts of a mineral, or the motives of anothers actions.
2. Nicety; delicacy.
3. Accuracy; exactness; nice performance; curiousness; as the curiosity of workmanship.
4. A nice experiment; a thing unusual or worthy of curiosity.
There hath been practiced a curiosity, to set a tree on the north side of a walk and at a little height, to draw it through the wall, _c.
5. An object of curiosity; that which excites a desire of See ing, or deserves to be See N, as novel and extraordinary.
We took a ramble together to See The curiosities of this great town.
[The first and last senses are chiefly used.]
