When you make cheese, curd is formed during the mixing process and becomes the cheese that you eat. It all starts out as liquid, then as it is stirred it starts to solidify -- the curd. At this point it looks like little chunks of cheese floating in soup (whey). The curds are removed from the whey, drained, placed into molds (or handformed), pressed to squeeze out more whey and they form the cheese wheel. Then it's aged before market.
Have you ever broken up colby cheese by hand and noticed it's all bumpy? That's the pressed curd. It's just cheese before it is formed. Cottage cheese is little bitty curd.
I like going to the cheese shop and buying bags of curd. It's good for snacking. Poutine sounds great. I think someone needs to post a recipe.