Curdle
/ˈkɜːrdl/verb
To separate or cause to separate into curds or lumps.
The milk curdled when it was left out of the fridge.
Often appears as...
- milk curdles
- curdled by heat
verb
Make or become unpleasant or spoiled.
Her stomach curdled at the sight of blood.
Often appears as...
- curdles my blood
- curdled her stomach
verb
Thicken to a semi-solid state.
She curdled the egg yolks to make a dessert.
Often appears as...
- yolk curdles
- curdled egg whites
verb
To separate or cause to separate into curds or lumps.
The milk curdled when it was left out of the fridge.
Often appears as...
- milk curdles
- curdled by heat
verb
Make or become unpleasant or spoiled.
Her stomach curdled at the sight of blood.
Often appears as...
- curdles my blood
- curdled her stomach
verb
Thicken to a semi-solid state.
She curdled the egg yolks to make a dessert.
Often appears as...
- yolk curdles
- curdled egg whites
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Heat Sensitivity
Curdling typically occurs when heat is applied to milk or cream, changing its texture.
If you heat the sauce too quickly, the cream may curdle.
Pro Tip 2/3Acid Reaction
Acidic ingredients can cause dairy to curdle, important in cooking and food science.
Adding lemon juice to warm milk will make it curdle.
Pro Tip 3/3Spoilage Indicator
Curdled milk is often a sign of spoilage and may indicate it's unsafe to consume.
I knew the milk was bad when it curdled in my coffee.
Compare with
clotcoagulatecongealfirm upgelsetsolidifythicken
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Video examples
How designing brand-new...
An enzyme is a protein that's a catalyst, it speeds up or accelerates a chemical reaction, just as the chymosin over here is accelerating the curdling of the milk. But it's not just about cheese. While enzymes do play an important role in the foods that we eat, they also are involved in everything from the health of an infant
Video examples
The beneficial bacteria...
its proteins start to aggregate and curdle. That's why spoiled milk is clumpy. Cheesemakers usually add an enzyme called rennet, naturally found inside of cows, goats, and some other mammals to help this process along. Eventually, those little curdles turn into bigger curds,
Video examples
The Man of a Trillion...
something began to curdle inside him, a rising resentment. First, a pang at a fellow scientist's heightened celebrity. Well, that was normal. Then he got to the park about the origin of the planets.
Video examples
How designing brand-new...
An enzyme is a protein that's a catalyst, it speeds up or accelerates a chemical reaction, just as the chymosin over here is accelerating the curdling of the milk. But it's not just about cheese. While enzymes do play an important role in the foods that we eat, they also are involved in everything from the health of an infant
Video examples
The beneficial bacteria...
its proteins start to aggregate and curdle. That's why spoiled milk is clumpy. Cheesemakers usually add an enzyme called rennet, naturally found inside of cows, goats, and some other mammals to help this process along. Eventually, those little curdles turn into bigger curds,
Video examples
The Man of a Trillion...
something began to curdle inside him, a rising resentment. First, a pang at a fellow scientist's heightened celebrity. Well, that was normal. Then he got to the park about the origin of the planets.
Example 1 of 3
Quote examples
Claire Saffitz
American Editor
Lemon curd is one of the first things I remember cooking when I was old enough to use the stove without supervision. I looked up a recipe in my one of my mom's Martha Stewart cookbooks and went to work, stirring anxiously and monitoring closely for signs that the mixture was thickening so as not to curdle the eggs.
Quote examples
Karen Bender
American Novelist
Giving shape to a painful experience is powerful because it helps us to see, first, how we got through it; second, how we can share it. The experience doesn't stay trapped within us, unspoken, curdling - instead, the art of arranging and transforming it reduces the burden. It no longer belongs to only you.
Quote examples
Jeffrey Kluger
American Writer
It's a deep and all but certain truth about narcissistic personalities that to meet them is to love them, but to know them well is to find them unbearable. Confidence quickly curdles into arrogance; smarts turn to smugness, charm turns to smarm.
Quote examples
Paul O'Grady
English Comedian
My primary school teacher once poured a bottle of curdled school milk forcefully down my throat. Then I threw it up all over her suede shoes. I'd rather have drunk from the spittoon in Barney's barber shop.
Quote examples
Neal Katyal
American Lawyer
Americans can tolerate some secrecy, particularly when it is rooted in protection of the public's interests. But when the claims appear to hide wrongdoing, they begin to curdle.
Quote examples
Jenny Zhang
Chinese Actress
There's so much of our behavior that kind of curdles and hardens as we get into adulthood, and it becomes so much more difficult to be hopeful and to dream extravagantly.
Quote examples
Lord Byron
British Poet
For in itself a thought, a slumbering thought, is capable of years, and curdles a long life into one hour.
Quote examples
Tina Brown
American Editor
Servility always curdles into rage in the end.
Quote examples
Claire Saffitz
American Editor
Lemon curd is one of the first things I remember cooking when I was old enough to use the stove without supervision. I looked up a recipe in my one of my mom's Martha Stewart cookbooks and went to work, stirring anxiously and monitoring closely for signs that the mixture was thickening so as not to curdle the eggs.
Quote examples
Karen Bender
American Novelist
Giving shape to a painful experience is powerful because it helps us to see, first, how we got through it; second, how we can share it. The experience doesn't stay trapped within us, unspoken, curdling - instead, the art of arranging and transforming it reduces the burden. It no longer belongs to only you.
Quote examples
Jeffrey Kluger
American Writer
It's a deep and all but certain truth about narcissistic personalities that to meet them is to love them, but to know them well is to find them unbearable. Confidence quickly curdles into arrogance; smarts turn to smugness, charm turns to smarm.
Quote examples
Paul O'Grady
English Comedian
My primary school teacher once poured a bottle of curdled school milk forcefully down my throat. Then I threw it up all over her suede shoes. I'd rather have drunk from the spittoon in Barney's barber shop.
Quote examples
Neal Katyal
American Lawyer
Americans can tolerate some secrecy, particularly when it is rooted in protection of the public's interests. But when the claims appear to hide wrongdoing, they begin to curdle.
Quote examples
Jenny Zhang
Chinese Actress
There's so much of our behavior that kind of curdles and hardens as we get into adulthood, and it becomes so much more difficult to be hopeful and to dream extravagantly.
Quote examples
Lord Byron
British Poet
For in itself a thought, a slumbering thought, is capable of years, and curdles a long life into one hour.
Quote examples
Tina Brown
American Editor
Servility always curdles into rage in the end.
Example 1 of 8
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