Describes hair, noodles, leaves, or other thin flexible things that are tightly curled, crimped, or frizzy. Often used in compound nouns like 縮れ毛 (curly hair) or 縮れ麺 (curly noodles).
My hair got frizzy from the humidity.
This ramen uses curly noodles.
curly hair; frizzy hair; kinky hair
Standard kanji spelling for the noun meaning curls, frizz, or kinks.
Kana spelling is common in everyday writing, especially when the kanji is not needed.
Noun form of the verb 縮れる (ちぢれる), which is related to 縮む (ちぢむ, 'to shrink') and ultimately from Old Japanese. The curling sense likely developed from the idea of something shrinking and becoming wrinkled or twisted.