curtail

[ker-teyl]

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verb (used with object)

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

Nearby words

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 MORE SYNONYMS FOR curtail ON THESAURUS.COM

Related forms

cur·tailed·ly, adverbcur·tail·er, nouncur·tail·ment, nounnon·cur·tail·ing, adjective

non·cur·tail·ment, nounun·cur·tailed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples 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

verb

(tr) to cut short; abridge

Derived Formscurtailer, nouncurtailment, noun

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

Word Origin and History for curtailment

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.