A piece of soft paper with which the hair is twisted up for some time, so as to give it a curl when the paper is taken out.
1824. Examiner, 44/1. She placed her fingers on the top of her head, where a curl-paper lay very tranquilly, under her cap.
1826. Moore, Amatory Colloquy, in Examiner, 108/2. Those soft billet-doux … Will serve but to keep Mrs. C—tts in curl-papers.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xxii. With her head in a perfect beehive of curl-papers and nightcap.
Hence Curl-papered a., having the hair in curl-papers.
1867. Bk. Humorous Poetry, 324. Wife—curl-paper’d, slip-shod, unwash’d and undress’d.
