Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cut short or reduce. See Synonyms at shorten.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A corruption of curtal. Compare curtail, v.
- To cut short; cut off the end or a part of; dock; diminish in extent or quantity: as, to curtail words.
- To deprive by excision or removal; abate by deprivation or negation: as, to curtail one of part of his allowance, or of his proper title.
- n. In architecture, a member shaped like a volute or scroll, especially in stair-building, as in the lower termination of a hand-rail or the projection of the lowest step of a flight. See curtail-step.
Wiktionary
- v. obsolete To cut short the tail of an animal
- v. To shorten or abridge the duration of something; to truncate.
- v. figuratively To limit or restrict, keep in check.
- n. architecture A scroll termination, as of a step, etc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To cut off the end or tail, or any part, of; to shorten; to abridge; to diminish; to reduce.
- n. The scroll termination of any architectural member, as of a step, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- v. terminate or abbreviate before its intended or proper end or its full extent
- v. place restrictions on
Etymologies
- Alteration of curtal, from Old French courtault ("which has been shortened"), itself from court ("short") (from Latin curtus) + -ault (Wiktionary)
- Middle English curtailen, to restrict, probably blend of Old French courtauld, docked; see curtal, and Middle English taillen, to cut (from Old French tailler; see tailor). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Booming M&A activity has helped to drive Australia's stock market to a record, but these changes may in the short term curtail that activity.”
“A poor African, behind the pulpit, who perhaps had seen pictures of the devil with a long tail and hoofs, misapprehended the meaning of the word curtail, and responded, "Amen! may it be cut right, smack, smooth, short off.”
“Freedom is not absolute, of course, but the worst atrocities in history have been carried out when authorities decided to "curtail" activities "in the interest of the common good.”
“I mean I am a seeker, so I worked really hard to kind of curtail those behaviors but I could not be in charge or in control of my behavior until I went on medicine.”
“Tho 'curtail'd their ranks, 'tis their character due,”
“The DGS strongly suggested that I "curtail" my "public activities" because we live in a small community and it might affect my reputation.”
“Time Warner Cable said it will "curtail" the use of the word "free" in advertising its HD service and stopped running ads claiming that AT”
“curtail" his Majesty's Wig "of its fair proportion;" yet I have sometimes been apt to think it rather improper, to make the Wig, as is usually done, of larger dimensions than the tree in which it and his”
“King called for blacks to stop drinking and gambling and to curtail their desires for luxuries.”
“To more effectively curtail the real's rise, Brazil's government must exhibit much more fiscal discipline, economists say.”
The Wall Street Journal: Brazil Scrambles for Long-Term Fix for Real's Strength
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘curtail’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, Vespasian, languid, studied, judgment, dwindle, artifice, contribute, observe, sonorous, gladiator and 264 more...
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NTDW2
yawp, amidships, smug, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, whit, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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Kangaroo Words
Words containing letters in sequence, together or apart, that form a definition or instance of the subsuming word. E.g., conTAmINaTe = the kangaroo word. TAINT = the joey. Theme from a NYT X-word ...
encourage, chariot, precipitation, neurotic, feaster, unsightly, charisma, inheritor, masculine, honorable, contaminate, regulate and 103 more...
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to lessen
words to shorten, weaken, or lessen
obviate, curtail, truncate, nadir, effete, attenuate, attrition, assuage, severance, phthisis, eviscerate
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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My GRE Vocab
moniker, sobriquet, prerogative, aberration, aberrant, nuance, notorious, infamous, renown, allude, refer, content and 109 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, replete, steeped, eminent, perceive, intrepid, compound, automaton, reticent, interminable, drudgery and 288 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for curtail.
kingparton I want to do only what I have it in my heart to do, and let others do the same; I do not ask anything of anybody; I do not want to curtail anybody's freedom. I want to be free myself.
Nikolai Chernyshevsky, "What Is to Be Done?" Jul 27, 2011
mollusque CUrTail Apr 26, 2008