'Curious arts' definitions:

Definition of 'Curious arts'

From: GCIDE
  • Curious \Cu"ri*ous\ (k?"r?-?s), a. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
  • 1. Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • Little curious in her clothes. --Fuller. [1913 Webster]
  • How shall we, If he be curious, work upon his faith? --Beau. & Fl. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Exhibiting care or nicety; artfully constructed; elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill. [1913 Webster]
  • To devise curious works. --Ex. xxxv. 32 [1913 Webster]
  • His body couched in a curious bed. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; -- sometimes with after or of. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Exciting attention or inquiry; awakening surprise; inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or plain; strange; rare. "Acurious tale" --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • A multitude of curious analogies. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
  • Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore. --E. A. Poe. [1913 Webster]
  • Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of learning or sciense often bring to light curious results. --C. J. Smith. [1913 Webster]
  • Curious arts, magic. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • Many . . . which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them. --Acts xix. 19.
  • Syn: Inquisitive; prying. See Inquisitive. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'curious arts'

From: Easton
  • Curious arts (Acts 19:19), magical arts; jugglery practised by the Ephesian conjurers. Ephesus was noted for its wizard and the "Ephesian spells;" i.e., charms or scraps of parchment written over with certain formula, which were worn as a safeguard against all manner of evils. The more important and powerful of these charms were written out in books which circulated among the exorcists, and were sold at a great price.