curdle
verbUK /ˈkɜː.dəl/ · US /ˈkɝ.dəl/
Etymology Metathesis of earlier dialectal cruddle, crudle, equivalent to curd + -le (frequentative suffix).
1
Ambitransitive 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
Ambitransitive To clot or coagulate; to cause to congeal, such as through cold. (metaphorically of blood)
- "Vich Ian Vohr," it said, in a voice that made my very blood curdle, "beware of to-morrow!"1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:
- 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.2023 December 28, Ross Barkan, “The zeitgeist is changing. A strange, romantic backlash to the tech era looms”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
3
To cause a liquid to spoil and form clumps so that it no longer flows smoothly.
- 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.'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:
- Derived terms
- blood-curdling, curdled, curdler, decurdling, uncurdle