Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Curious

Curious (k?"r?-?s) , adjective

[Old French curios, curius, French curieux, Latin curiosus careful, inquisitive, from cura care. See Cure.]

1.
Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [Obsolete]
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. — Shakespeare
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 — Shakespeare
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
Many... which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them. — Acts xix. 19