curtail
1[ ker-teyl ]
/ kərˈteɪl /
verb (used with object)
to cut short; cut off a part of; abridge; reduce; diminish.
RELATED CONTENT
Is Online News Reliable?Remember that time we learned that Facebook and Twitter acknowledged that the Russians posted fake news on their sites during the 2016 presidential election campaign ... it is estimated that the fake news spread to over 126 million Americans. Can we still trust what we read online?
RELATED WORDS
trim, halt, reduce, shorten, downsize, decrease, slash, lessen, diminish, cramp, cut, clip, truncate, retrench, contract, chop, dock, lop, abbreviate, minify
Nearby words
- cursor,
- cursorial,
- cursory,
- curst,
- curt,
- curtail step,
- curtailment,
- curtain,
- curtain call,
- curtain lecture
Origin of curtail
1curtail
2[ kur-teyl ]
/ ˈkɜrˌteɪl /
noun Architecture.
a horizontal, spiral termination to the lower end of a stair railing.
Also called curtail step. a starting step having a scroll termination to one or both ends of the tread.
Origin of curtail
2probably alteration, by folk etymology, of curtal
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for curtail
curtail
/ (kɜːˈteɪl) /
verb
(tr) to cut short; abridge
Word Origin for curtail
C16: changed (through influence of tail 1) from obsolete curtal to dock; see curtal
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
curtail
late 15c., from Middle French courtault "made short," from court "short" (Old French cort, from Latin curtus; see curt) + -ault pejorative suffix of Germanic origin. Originally curtal; used of horses with docked tails, which probably influenced the spelling. Related: Curtailed; curtailing.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper