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curtail

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 30 August 2007

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Verb

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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; to bring an end to; to truncate.
    When the audience grew restless, the speaker curtailed her speech.
    • 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 11:37 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron‎[1], archived from the original on 29 November 2024:
      Although British involvement in the slave trade prior to 1807 cannot be denied, or its effects diminished, it is also a fact that the Royal Navy was pretty much the only force in the world in the 19th century with the numbers, drive, willingness, firepower, and capability to curtail the global slave trade, and that, without these efforts, many more would no doubt have been taken to slave plantations and other such destinations during the 19th, and possibly even into the 20th, centuries, as it must be remembered that a great many European powers would only begrudgingly commit to ending the slave trade when the other option was continuous war with the British Empire.
  3. (transitive, figuratively) To limit or restrict; to 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

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

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curtail (plural curtails)

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

Anagrams

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