Meanings
- ScotlanddialectaluncountableThe shock felt when one first plunges into cold water.
Paul Morphy died of curglaff.
2013 July 16, “Obituaries”, in Georgia Chess Magazine2 more examples
Even as the curtains are being pulled in around you, you will probably experience the curglaff, which is another old Scots term, this time for the feeling you get when you're hit with cold water. Your heart gallops, your blood rushes, and, if you're Benjamin Franklin, you don't like it one little bit.
2012, Mark Forsyth, The Horologicon, →ISBNThe recent spate of – welcome – technology IPOs sent the market into a curglaff when many offerings promptly started a freefall from their market highs, leaving many burned retail investors in their wake.
2013 March 9, Alex Wilhelm, “Stocks at all time highs? Not if you look at these recently public tech companies”, in TNW News
Cite this entry
curglaff. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/curglaff
“curglaff.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/curglaff. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “curglaff,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/curglaff.
Source: curglaff on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.