Meaning

3 senses
  1. (transitive)To shorten or abridge the duration of; to bring an end to; to truncate.

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

    beschneiden, stutzen, verkürzen

    сокраща́тьsokraščátʹ, сократи́тьsokratítʹ, уреза́тьurezátʹ

  2. (figuratively, transitive)To limit or restrict; to keep in check.

    beschränken, beschneiden, drosseln

    ограни́чиватьograníčivatʹ, ограни́читьograníčitʹ

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

    Curtailing horses procured long horse-hair.

    kupieren

    укора́чиватьukoráčivatʹ, укороти́тьukorotítʹ, обреза́тьobrezátʹ

More definitions
  • place restrictions on
  • terminate or abbreviate before its intended or proper end or its full extent

Examples

7 sentences
  1. Their efforts to curtail spending didn't quite succeed.

    deIhre Anstrengungen, Ausgaben einzudämmen, waren nicht ganz von Erfolg gekrönt.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · gauravjiii · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  2. Netanyahu wants to severely curtail the powers of the judiciary.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · Amastan · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  3. In this country, the freedom to browse the Internet is curtailed.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · Miktsoanit · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  4. Sami's privileges were curtailed.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · OsoHombre · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  5. We can say that there's not a clear winner in terms of a policy to curtail medical expenses and benefits.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · papabear · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

6 languages
Русский
By meaning 3
cut short an animal's tail:
shorten or abridge:
limit or restrict:
Deutsch
By meaning 3
cut short an animal's tail:
shorten or abridge:
limit or restrict:

Origin

Alteration of curtal, from Old French courtault (“which has been shortened”), itself from

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

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

curtails, curtailing, curtailed, curtailed
Base formcurtail · to curtail
3rd person singularcurtails
Present participlecurtailing
Past simplecurtailed
Past participlecurtailed

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theycurtail
he, she, itcurtails

Past simpleLesson

all personscurtailed

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave curtailed
he, she, ithas curtailed

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill curtail

Synonyms

13 synonyms
animal's tail:cropB1dockB2
shorten:abbreviate
limit:behedge
Close in meaning

Word family

7 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
curtail — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto