curtail

English

WOTD – 30 August 2007

Etymology

Alteration of curtal, from Old French courtault (“which has been shortened”), itself from court (“short”) (from Latin curtus) + -ault

Pronunciation

Verb

curtail (third-person singular simple present curtails, present participle curtailing, simple past and past participle curtailed)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To cut short the tail of an animal
    Curtailing horses procured long horse-hair.
  2. (transitive) To shorten or abridge the duration of something; to truncate.
    When the audience grew restless, the speaker curtailed her speech.
  3. (transitive, figuratively) To limit or restrict, keep in check.
    Their efforts to curtail spending didn't quite succeed.
    • Macaulay
      Our incomes have been curtailed; his salary has been doubled.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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Noun

curtail (plural curtails)

  1. (architecture) A scroll termination, as of a step, etc.

Anagrams

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