Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Curiosity

Cu′ri·os′i·ty (kū′rĭ·ŏs′ĭ·ty̆), n.; pl. Curiosities (- tĭz). [OE. curiouste, curiosite, OF. curioseté, curiosité, F. curiosité, fr. L. curiositas, fr. curiosus. See Curious, and cf. Curio.] 1. The state or quality or being curious; nicety; accuracy; exactness; elaboration. [Obs.] Bacon.

When thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity. Shak.

A screen accurately cut in tapiary work . . . with great curiosity. Evelin.

2. Disposition to inquire, investigate, or seek after knowledge; a desire to gratify the mind with new information or objects of interest; inquisitiveness. Milton.

3. That which is curious, or fitted to excite or reward attention.

We took a ramble together to see the curiosities of this great town. Addison.

There hath been practiced also a curiosity, to set a tree upon the north side of a wall, and, at a little hieght, to draw it through the wall, etc. Bacon.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.