curtail

[ ker-teyl ]

/ kərˈteɪl /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR curtail ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

to cut short; cut off a part of; abridge; reduce; diminish.

Origin of curtail

1425–75; late Middle English curtailen to restrict (said of royal succession or inheritance), probably a conflation of Middle French courtau(l)d (see curtal) and Middle English taillen to cut (see taille, tailor¹)

SYNONYMS FOR curtail

lessen, dock. See shorten.

SEE SYNONYMS FOR curtail ON THESAURUS.COM

OTHER WORDS FROM curtail

cur·tailed·ly, adverb cur·tail·er, noun cur·tail·ment, noun non·cur·tail·ing, adjective

non·cur·tail·ment, noun un·cur·tailed, adjective

Words nearby curtail

cursor, cursorial, cursory, curst, curt, curtail, curtail step, curtain, curtain call, curtain lecture, curtain line

Example sentences from the Web for curtailment

The mayor-elect turned serious when asked how the appointment jibed with his call for the curtailment of stop-and-frisk.

Can Bill Bratton Solve De Blasio’s NYPD Dilemma? |Michael Daly |December 5, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
Osama bin Laden may be dead but the extraordinary government powers and curtailment of civil liberties enacted after 9/11 remain.

Bin Laden's Real Legacy |David K. Shipler |May 26, 2011 |DAILY BEAST
The curtailment of the plan which compelled the architect to place a compressed west faade on a high socle, eliminated the door.

Problems in Periclean Buildings |G. W. Elderkin
These, by a curtailment or national corruption of their proper prenomen, would be ordinarily styled Sandy this, Jock that.

Toronto of Old |Henry Scadding

Old Kenion paid the bill, to avoid something worse than the curtailment of the university curriculum.

Mrs. Thompson |William Babington Maxwell
And forsomuch it behooveth to see well to that when the time of battle cometh, that he borrow not, nor make no curtailment.

The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume III (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland I |Francis W. Halsey
That there was no necessity for this third curtailment ordered in January.

Thirty Years' View (Vol. I of 2) |Thomas Hart Benton

British Dictionary definitions for curtailment

curtail

/ (kɜːˈteɪl) /

verb

(tr) to cut short; abridge

Derived forms of curtail

curtailer, noun curtailment, noun

Word Origin for curtail

C16: changed (through influence of tail 1) from obsolete curtal to dock; see curtal

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

curtail

verb (used with object)

Origin of curtail

SYNONYMS FOR curtail

OTHER WORDS FROM curtail

Words nearby curtail

Example sentences from the Web for curtailment

British Dictionary definitions for curtailment

verb

Derived forms of curtail

Word Origin for curtail

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

curtail

verb (used with object)

Origin of curtail

SYNONYMS FOR curtail

OTHER WORDS FROM curtail

Words nearby curtail

Words related to curtailment

Example sentences from the Web for curtailment

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []) .push({}); British Dictionary definitions for curtailment

verb

Derived forms of curtail

Word Origin for curtail

British Dictionary definitions for curtailment