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curtail. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
curtail, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
curtail in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
curtail you have here. The definition of the word
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curtail, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
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)
- (transitive, obsolete) To cut short the tail of an animal
- Curtailing horses procured long horse-hair.
- (transitive) To shorten or abridge the duration of something; to truncate.
- When the audience grew restless, the speaker curtailed her speech.
- (transitive, figuratively) To limit or restrict, keep in check.
1960 December, “Talking of Trains: Branch report”, in Trains Illustrated, page 708:This is the rump of the C.L.C. branch to Southport Lord Street, which lost its passenger services beyond Aintree from January 7, 1952, whereupon the timetable between Gateacre and Aintree was greatly curtailed.
2018, “Israeli gov't is trying to defund +972 Magazine, report says”, in +972 Magazine:The current Israeli government has been working to curtail and eliminate critical voices within Israeli society in recent years, particularly those fighting to end the occupation and expose human rights violations against Palestinians and marginalized communities.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
cut short an animal's tail
shorten or abridge
- Bulgarian: скъсявам (bg) (skǎsjavam), съкращавам (bg) (sǎkraštavam)
- Catalan: escurçar (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 缩减 (zh) (suōjiǎn),精简 (zh) (jīngjiǎn)
- Czech: zkrátit (cs)
- Danish: forkorte (da)
- Dutch: beknotten (nl), knotten (nl), kortwieken (nl), bekorten (nl), inkorten (nl), verkorten (nl)
- Finnish: lyhentää (fi)
- French: écourter (fr), abréger (fr)
- Galician: recortar, acurtar (gl), abreviar (gl)
- German: beschneiden (de), stutzen (de), verkürzen (de)
- Greek:
- Ancient: συντέμνω (suntémnō)
- Hebrew: קִצֵּרקִצֵּר (kitsér), צִמְצֵם (he) (tsimtsém)
- Ido: rekortar (io), abreviar (io)
- Maori: auporo, tauporo, auporo, totope
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: forkorte
- Nynorsk: forkorte
- Portuguese: encurtar (pt)
- Russian: сокраща́ть (ru) impf (sokraščátʹ), сократи́ть (ru) pf (sokratítʹ), уреза́ть (ru) impf (urezátʹ), уре́зать (ru) pf (urézatʹ)
- Scottish Gaelic: giorraich
- Serbo-Croatian: skratiti (sh), smanjiti (sh)
- Spanish: acortar (es), truncar (es)
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limit or restrict
- Bulgarian: ограни́чавам (bg) impf (ograníčavam)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 限制 (zh) (xiànzhì),制约 (zh) (zhìyuē)
- Czech: omezit (cs)
- Danish: begrænse (da)
- Dutch: beknotten (nl), kort houden, kortwieken (nl), beperken (nl)
- Estonian: piirama
- Finnish: rajoittaa (fi)
- French: restreindre (fr)
- Galician: limitar (gl), coartar, restrinxir (gl)
- German: beschränken (de), beschneiden (de), drosseln (de), kürzen (de)
- Maori: totope
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: begrense (no)
- Nynorsk: avgrense
- Portuguese: limitar (pt), restringir (pt)
- Russian: ограни́чивать (ru) impf (ograníčivatʹ), ограни́чить (ru) pf (ograníčitʹ)
- Serbo-Croatian: ograničiti (sh), stegnuti (sh)
- Spanish: limitar (es)
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Translations to be checked
Noun
curtail (plural curtails)
- (architecture) A scroll termination, as of a step, etc.
Anagrams