curdle

English

Etymology

Metathesis of earlier dialectal cruddle, crudle, equivalent to curd +‎ -le (frequentative suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɜː.dəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɝ.dəl/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dəl

Verb

curdle (third-person singular simple present curdles, present participle curdling, simple past and past participle curdled)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To form curds so that it no longer flows smoothly; to cause to form such curds. (usually said of milk)

   Too much lemon will curdle the milk in your tea.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To clot or coagulate; to cause to congeal, such as through cold. (metaphorically of blood)
   • 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:   James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

     "Vich Ian Vohr," it said, in a voice that made my very blood curdle, "beware of to-morrow!"

   • 2023 December 28, Ross Barkan, “The zeitgeist is changing. A strange, romantic backlash to the tech era looms”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Trust in the science did not curdle at the same instance as trust in the tech conglomerates, but they are not so dissimilar when weighed against the hype of progress.

3. (transitive) To cause a liquid to spoil and form clumps so that it no longer flows smoothly.
   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, , published 1837, →OCLC:

     It is enough,' said the agitated Mr. Slurk, pacing to and fro, 'to curdle the ink in one's pen, and induce one to abandon their cause for ever.'

Derived terms

• blood-curdling
• curdled

Translations

Anagrams

• crudle, curled