CURTAIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does curtail mean? 

• CURTAIL (verb)
  The verb CURTAIL has 2 senses:

1. place restrictions on

2. terminate or abbreviate before its intended or proper end or its full extent

  Familiarity information: CURTAIL used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CURTAIL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they curtail    ... he / she / it curtails   
Past simple: curtailed   
Past participle: curtailed   
-ing form: curtailing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Place restrictions on

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

curb; curtail; cut back; restrict

Context example:

curtail drinking in school

Hypernyms (to "curtail" is one way to...):

circumscribe; confine to; limit (restrict or confine within limits)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "curtail"):

abridge (lessen, diminish, or curtail)

immobilise; immobilize (cause to be unable to move)

ration (restrict the consumption of a relatively scarce commodity, as during war)

control; restrict (place under restrictions; limit access to by law)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Terminate or abbreviate before its intended or proper end or its full extent

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

clip; curtail; cut short

Context example:

Personal freedom is curtailed in many countries

Hypernyms (to "curtail" is one way to...):

shorten (make shorter than originally intended; reduce or retrench in length or duration)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

curtailment (the temporal property of being cut short)

 Context examples 

Deforestation cuts back on tree shadow on rivers, increases the number of river algae, which compete with fish for oxygen, and curtails the availability of food that comes from trees.

(Amazon fish ‘face new threats’, SciDev.Net)

"Sir, I do not wish to act against you," I said; and my unsteady voice warned me to curtail my sentence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Well, sir, let us do what we can to curtail this visit, which can hardly be agreeable to you, and is inexpressibly irksome to me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You have only knowledge enough of the language to translate at sight these inverted, transposed, curtailed Italian lines, into clear, comprehensible, elegant English.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Dr. Sina Gharib, director of UW Medicine's Computational Medicine Core at the Center for Lung Biology, and the paper's senior author, explained that a lot of existing data shows that curtailing sleep — for a limited time in the laboratory setting — can increase inflammatory markers and activate immune cells.

(Chronic Sleep Deprivation Suppresses Immune System, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Miss Bertram approved the decision, for the less he had to learn the better; and though she could not sympathise in his wish that the Count and Agatha might be to act together, nor wait very patiently while he was slowly turning over the leaves with the hope of still discovering such a scene, she very kindly took his part in hand, and curtailed every speech that admitted being shortened; besides pointing out the necessity of his being very much dressed, and chusing his colours.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The time fixed for the beginning of their northern tour was now fast approaching, and a fortnight only was wanting of it, when a letter arrived from Mrs. Gardiner, which at once delayed its commencement and curtailed its extent.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

These were vile discoveries; but except for the treachery of concealment, I should have made them no subject of reproach to my wife, even when I found her nature wholly alien to mine, her tastes obnoxious to me, her cast of mind common, low, narrow, and singularly incapable of being led to anything higher, expanded to anything larger—when I found that I could not pass a single evening, nor even a single hour of the day with her in comfort; that kindly conversation could not be sustained between us, because whatever topic I started, immediately received from her a turn at once coarse and trite, perverse and imbecile—when I perceived that I should never have a quiet or settled household, because no servant would bear the continued outbreaks of her violent and unreasonable temper, or the vexations of her absurd, contradictory, exacting orders—even then I restrained myself: I eschewed upbraiding, I curtailed remonstrance; I tried to devour my repentance and disgust in secret; I repressed the deep antipathy I felt.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was impossible but that Mrs Clay must hate the sight of Mr Elliot; and yet she could assume a most obliging, placid look, and appear quite satisfied with the curtailed license of devoting herself only half as much to Sir Walter as she would have done otherwise.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Long after the little birds had left their nests; long after bees had come in the sweet prime of day to gather the heath honey before the dew was dried—when the long morning shadows were curtailed, and the sun filled earth and sky—I got up, and I looked round me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)