n.
Any of several brownish, long-legged shore birds of the genus Numenius, having long, slender, downward-curving bills.
[Middle English curleu, from Old French courlieu, perhaps of imitative origin.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
