curtal

American  

[kur-tl] / ˈkɜr tl /

adjective

1. Archaic. wearing a short frock.

   a curtal friar.

2. Obsolete. brief; curtailed.

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noun

1. a 16th-century bassoon.

2. Obsolete. an animal with a docked tail.

curtal British  

/ ˈkɜːtəl /

adjective

1. cut short

2. (of friars) wearing a short frock

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noun

1. an animal whose tail has been docked

2. something that is cut short

Etymology

Origin of curtal

1500–10; earlier courtault < Middle French, equivalent to court short ( see curt) + -ault, variant of -ald noun suffix; see ribald

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

curtal

Tinselled fantasy is shrewdly banished; putty-coloured, sullen fairies slouch along to the hoots and rustles, sackbut and curtal of Claire van Kampen's eerie music.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 8, 2013

Hope is a curtal dog in some affairs: II.

From The Merry Wives of Windsor The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] by John Glover

And whether his men shot east or west, Or they shot north or south, The curtal dogs, so taught they were, They caught the arrows in their mouth.

From The Book of Brave Old Ballads by Sir John Gilbert

For success, a prayer, with a farewell, bear To the warriors dear of the muir and the valley— The lads that convene in their plaiding of green, With the curtal coat, and the sweeping eil-e.

From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume III The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century by Charles Rogers

As to the hardy feats, both of sword and trencher, performed by this "curtal fryar," behold are they not recorded at length in the ancient ballads, and in the magic pages of Ivanhoe?

From Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey by Washington Irving