CURIO

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does curio mean? 

• CURIO (noun)
  The noun CURIO has 1 sense:

1. something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting

  Familiarity information: CURIO used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CURIO (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

curio; curiosity; oddity; oddment; peculiarity; rarity

Hypernyms ("curio" is a kind of...):

object; physical object (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "curio"):

bric-a-brac; knickknack; knickknackery; nicknack; whatnot (miscellaneous curios)

collectable; collectible (things considered to be worth collecting (not necessarily valuable or antique))

collector's item; piece de resistance; showpiece (the outstanding item (the prize piece or main exhibit) in a collection)

 Context examples 

One day, about the time of our Cliffe Royal adventure, I was seated in the cottage looking round at the curios which my father had fastened on to the walls, and wishing, like the lazy lad that I was, that Mr. Lilly had died before ever he wrote his Latin grammar, when my mother, who was sitting knitting in the window, gave a little cry of surprise.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Well, well, he added, looking round at the walls of the room, here are all my old curios, the same as ever: the narwhal’s horn from the Arctic, and the blowfish from the Moluccas, and the paddles from Fiji, and the picture of the Ca Ira with Lord Hotham in chase.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)