Idiom idiom
curiouser and curiouser
Meaning
Used to describe or react to an increasingly mysterious or peculiar situation.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The house was empty, then the lights turned on; curiouser and curiouser.”
“I found a locked door in my basement and then heard music coming from behind it, which felt curiouser and curiouser.”
“As the strange messages continued to arrive from an unknown sender, the situation became curiouser and curiouser, leaving me unable to sleep.”
Origin
first recorded 19th c.
first recorded 19th c.
From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by the English author Lewis Carroll (1832–1898): see the quotation.
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026