curtail

Alteration of curtal, from Old French courtault (“which has been shortened”), itself from court (“short”) (from Latin curtus) + -ault

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɜːˈteɪl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kɚˈteɪl/

  • Audio (California):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl

curtail (third-person singular simple present curtails, present participle curtailing, simple past and past participle curtailed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To cut short the tail of an animal

   Curtailing horses procured long horse-hair.

2. (transitive) To shorten or abridge the duration of something; to truncate.

   When the audience grew restless, the speaker curtailed her speech.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To limit or restrict, keep in check.
   • 1960 December, “Talking of Trains: Branch report”, in Trains Illustrated, page 708:

     This is the rump of the C.L.C. branch to Southport Lord Street, which lost its passenger services beyond Aintree from January 7, 1952, whereupon the timetable between Gateacre and Aintree was greatly curtailed.

   • 2018, “Israeli gov't is trying to defund +972 Magazine, report says”, in +972 Magazine:

     The current Israeli government has been working to curtail and eliminate critical voices within Israeli society in recent years, particularly those fighting to end the occupation and expose human rights violations against Palestinians and marginalized communities.

• (animal's tail): crop, dock
• (shorten): abbreviate, shorten; See also Thesaurus:shorten
• (limit): behedge, control, limit, restrain; See also Thesaurus:curb

• curt
• curtal

curtail (plural curtails)

1. (architecture) A scroll termination, as of a step, etc.

• trucial, urtical