Curtail

Definition: Curtail

Curtail

Verb

1. Place restrictions on; "curtail drinking in school".

2. Terminate or abbreviate before its intended or proper end or its full extent; "My speech was cut short"; "Personal freedom is curtailed in many countries".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "curtail" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Literature

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Curtail

Nonaddition Subtraction

Diminish; curtail; (shorten); deprive of; (take); weaken.

Shortness

Verb: be short; Adjective: render short; Adjective: shorten, curtail, abridge, abbreviate, take in, reduce; compress; (contract); epitomize.

Taking

Take from, take away from; disseize; deduct; retrench; (curtail); dispossess, ease one of, snatch from one's grasp; tear from, tear away from, wrench from, wrest from, wring from; extort; deprive of, bereave; disinherit, cut off with a shilling.

Crosswords: Curtail

Books

• Measures to curtail state fuel tax evasion (reference)

• Nuclear nonproliferation : hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, first session, concerning failed efforts to curtail Iraq's nuclear w (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Health

In that case, special precautions should be taken to curtail "contact" activities. (references)

Avoid air pollution, including cigarette smoke, and curtail physical activities during air pollution alerts. (references)

Business

The new rules were designed to curtail the competitive use of soft loans in an effort to channel aid funds to non-profitable projects. (references)

Based on this data, the MOE is able to issue warnings or instruct firms to curtail or stop operations, in turn helping to minimize air pollution in these vulnerable areas. (references)

Civil Liberties

Nepal

No government efforts to curtail academic freedom were reported during the year. (references)

Algeria

The Constitution provides for the right of assembly; however, the 1992 Emergency Law and government practice sharply curtail this right. (references)

Algeria

The GIA has not yet retracted that declaration and, as a result, the mainly foreign Christian community tends to curtail its public activities. (references)

Economic History

India

In an effort to curtail tensions, the two countries formed a joint commission. (references)

Colombia

Experienced companies have made contingency plans to curtail operations if necessary. (references)

Poland

In October 1990, the constitution was amended to curtail the term of President Jaruzelski. (references)

Human Rights

South Africa

The system also was designed to prevent docket thefts and to curtail the activities of corrupt police and court officials. (references)

Kyrgyz Republic

Human rights groups operated in a hostile environment and were faced with continuous government pressure to curtail their activities. (references)

Saudi Arabia

During the year, the Government neither criticized publicly abuses by Mutawwa'in and religious vigilantes nor sought to curtail such abuses. (references)

Political Economy

TAIWAN

To protect optical media products, the U.S. requested Taiwan enact an optical disk law to control and curtail illegal manufacturers of optical media goods. (references)

Afghanistan

Such harassment forced many NGO's to curtail their activities and, together with the intensified military activity late in the year, forced most international assistance workers to leave the country. (references)

TAIWAN

In April 2001, the United States put Taiwan on the Special 301 Priority Watch List up from its placement on the Watch List in 2000. This action resulted from increased concern over Taiwan's inadequate progress in enacting optical media legislation, and Taiwan's failure to shut down known copyright pirates and to curtail increasing on-line piracy. (references)

Trade

China

The Tiananmen Sanctions of 1990 are still in effect and sharply curtail U.S. exporter opportunities to sell crime control equipment to China's police agencies and defense electronics equipment to the Chinese military. (references)

Worker Rights

Dominica

The new Government moved to curtail the economic citizenship program, following complaints from the Governments of Canada and Australia. (references)

Cyprus

In addition authorities in both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities have the power to curtail strikes in "essential services," although this power is used rarely. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expressions using "curtail": Curtail dog ♦ curtail one's visit ♦ curtail step. Additional references.

Afrikaans

bekort (abbreviate, abridge, shorten). (various references)

Albanian

zvogëloj (abate, belittle, decrease, diminish, lessen, make smaller, minimize, mitigate, qualify, rebate, reduce, relax, relieve, scale down, slacken, take away, take in, take up, understate), shkurtoj (abbreviate, abridge, ax, axe, buck, clip, compress, condense, cut, cut back, cut down, detruncate, dock, epitomize, pare, poll, prune, razee, retrench, shorten, truncate, undercut, whittle down), pakësoj (abate, abridge, cut down, deflate, degrade, diminish, lessen, lower, narrow, pare, razee, reduce, retrench, slacken, understate, vitiate). (various references)

Arabic 

‏إختصر (abbreviate, abridge, analyse, analyze, boil down, clip, cut short, limit, nick, outline, reduce, shorten, syncopate), ‏بتر (amputate, amputation, maim, mangle, mutilate, mutilation, resect, resection, stump, take off, truncate). (various references)

Bulgarian 

съкращавам (abbreviate, abridge, cancel, condense, contract, cut short, discard, elide, prune, reduce, retrench, slash, take off, terminate, truncate), скъсявам (abbreviate, contract, cut down, retract, shorten), намалявам (abate, abbreviate, allay, attenuate, bring down, clip, contract, cut back, cut down, decline, decrease, deduct, deflate, degrade, deplete, detract, dim, diminish, ebb, extenuate, fine, impair, knock off, lessen, lighten, lull, minify, minimize, moderate, modify, pare down, prejudice, put back, put down, reduce, remit, run down, scant, shorten, shrink, sink, slacken, subdue, take from, thin, thin away, thin down, understate, wane, work down), животно с отрязана опашка. (various references)

Chinese 

削减 (Curtailed, Curtailing, Curtailment). (various references)

Czech

zkrátit (abbreviate, abridge, Bob, condense, cut, cut back, cut down, cut short, dock, reduce, shorten), omezit (abate, circumscribe, confine, constrict, curb, cut back, cut down, decrease, deflate, limit, narrow, prune, restrict, retrench, scale down, terminate, trammel), oklesit (chop off). (various references)

Danish

forkorte (abbreviate, abridge, shorten). (various references)

Dutch

verkorten (abbreviate, abridge, shorten), korten (abbreviate, abridge, count down, discount, rebate, shorten), inkrimpen (abbreviate, abridge, reduce, shorten). (various references)

Esperanto

malplilongigi (abbreviate, abridge, shorten). (various references)

Farsi 

مختصرنمودن , کوتاه کردن (Abbreviate, Abridge, Dock, Short, Shorten, Stag). (various references)

Finnish

vähentää (cut, decrease, deduct, detract from, diminish, lessen, reduce, subtract, take from, take off), supistaa (abbreviate, abridge, constrict, contract, cut, cut down, limit, reduce, restrict), niukentaa (cut down, reduce), lyhentää (abbreviate, abridge, cut short, pay off, shorten). (various references)

French

raccourcir (take a short cut). (various references)

Frisian

ferkoartsje (abbreviate, abridge, shorten), bekoartsje (abbreviate, abridge, shorten). (various references)

German

kürzen (abridge, ax, axe, cancel, cut, dock, prune, reduce, retrench, shorten, take up, to abbreviate, to abridge, to clip, to curtail, to shorten), abkürzen (abbreviate, abridge, be cut, cut short, shorten, take a short cut, to abbreviate, to cut short, to shorten). (various references)

Greek 

περικόπτω (abridge, clip, crop, cut back, cut back on, dock, lop, pare, razee, retrench, trim). (various references)

Hebrew 

לקצר (abbreviate, cut across, short, shorten). (various references)

Hungarian

rövidít (abbreviate, abridge, shorten, to abbreviate, to abridge, to take a short cut). (various references)

Indonesian

mengurangi (abridge, attenuate, deaden, deduct, detract, diminish, relieve, substract), memendekkan (abridge, shorten), membatasi (abridge, border, bound, curb, define, form the border of, limit, restrict). (various references)

Italian

accorciare (abbreviate, abridge, become shorten, shorten), abbreviare (abbreviate, abridge, cut short, shorten). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

削 (crossout, pare, plane, reduce, scrape off, sharpen, shave, whittle). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

さく (a harvest, a work, cord, crossout, fence, last, paling, pare, plan, plane, policy, reduce, rope, scrape off, sharpen, shave, to alienate, to avoid, to bloom, to cede, to cleave, to cut up, to divide, to separate, to sever, to spare, to split, to tear, whittle, yesterday). (various references)

Korean 

단축하십시�". (various references)

Malay

singkat (abbreviate, abridge, shorten), menyingkat (abbreviate, abridge, shorten). (various references)

Manx

giarrey (abbreviate, abridge, abridging, axe, beat out, bob the tail; severance, bob; severance, carve, castrate, cleave, clip, clip as words; slicing, clip; slicing, condensation, condense, condensing, crop, crop as tail, curtailment, cut, cut away, cut back, cut short, cut up, disconnect, disconnection, dissect, erupt, eruption, flux, gash, hack, hew, incise, incision, infliction, intersect, intersection, lance, levy, lop, mark out, nicking, prune, pruning, puncture, reaping, scission, section, sever, shear, sink, slash, slit, snip, truncate). (various references)

Norwegian

skjære ned på. (various references)

Papiamen

abreviá (abbreviate, abridge, shorten). (various references)

Pig Latin

urtailcay

Polish

skrócić. (various references)

Portuguese

cortar (bite, chaff, chip, chop, clip, crop, cut, cut down, cut off, delete, detruncate, fell, gash, gouge, hack, hackle, hand back, hew, hew down, incise, indent, interrupt, intersect, let by, log, lop, lumber, mow, poll, pollard, sever, shave, shear, shut off, slice, slit, strike off, strike out, whittle), cercear (restrict, retrench, scrimp, skimp), truncar (mutilate, truncate), reduzir (bate, boil down, cut, decrease, diminish, lessen, minify, minimize, reduce, restrict, retrench, scale, scrimp, shorten, sink, skimp, slash, to reduce, weaken, wear down, write off), privar (bereave, debar, denudate, deprive, strip), encurtar (abridge, contract, dock, lessen, shorten, take in). (various references)

Romanian

prescurta (abbreviate, abridge, condense, reduce, riddle, shorten). (various references)

Russian 

сокращать (abbreviate, abridge, blue pencil, blue-pencil, condense, constrict, contract, cut, cut back, divide out, dock, epitomize, pare, pare away, razee, reduce, shorten, shortens). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

smanjiti (abate, cut back, cut down, decrease, diminish, downsize, lessen, mitigate, pare down, rebate, reduce, slash, whittle away, whittle down), skratiti (abbreviate, abridge, cut short, detruncate, foreshorten, reduce, shorten, syncopate, telescope, truncate). (various references)

Spanish

acortar (abbreviate, abridge, clip, cut back, cut short, shorten, turn up). (various references)

Swedish

stympa (clip, garble, hack, maim, mutilate, truncate), avkorta (condense, shorten, truncate). (various references)

Turkish

kisaltmak (abbreviate, abridge, shorten), kısmak (abridge, attenuate, ax, axe, check, choke, choke back, choke off, cut back, cut down on, depress, diminish, draw in, economize, narrow, pare, pare down, pinch, put down, qualify, reduce, retrench, scrimp, skimp, soften, stint, throttle, throttle down, tighten, turn down), kısaltmak (abbreviate, abridge, cancel, clip, compress, cut down, dock, edit, make shorter, prune, reduce, retrench, short circuit, shorten, summarize, take up), kısa kesmek (be brief, Bob, boil down, chop one's words, cut short, draw it fine, shingle, tell briefly, wrap it up), düşürmek (beat down, cause to fall, deflate, depress, drop, flop, knock off, let down, let fall, lower, mark down, overthrow, precipitate, pull dawn, put down, reduce, roll back, scale down, screw down, send down, sink, slim down, spill, step down, take from, throw, topple over, trip). (various references)

Ukrainian

урізувати (ax, axe, castrate, lop away, lop off, pare, scant, scrimp, shorten, truncate), скорочувати (abate, abbreviate, abridge, ax, axe, blue pencil, boil down, cancel, castrate, cut, lop away, lop off, prune, retrench, shorten, shrink). (various references)

Welsh

cwtogi (abridge, shorten). (various references)

breviare. (various references)

courtault. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "curtail": curtailed, curtailer, curtailers, curtailing, curtailment, curtailments, curtails. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Curtail" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: corail, Cortal, courtail, Courtrai, crutial, curdil, curntail, curtcil, curteil, curtial, curtisii, curttail, cutail, cuttail, Kurdjali, Mcgrail. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: citral, curial, curtal, rictal, ritual, uracil, uratic.

-2 letters: aulic, auric, culti, curia, tical, trail, triac, trial, ultra, urial.

-3 letters: airt, alit, aril, carl, cart, caul, clit, cult, curl, curt, laic, lair, lari, lati, liar, lira, litu, rail, rial, tail, talc, tali, tirl, uric.

-4 letters: act, ail, air, ait, alt, arc, art, car, cat, cur.

+1 letter: cultivar, curtails, multicar, reticula, rustical, turrical, uralitic.

+2 letters: actuarial, antiulcer, articular, auctorial, capitular, circuital, circulate, cultivars, culturati, curtailed, curtailer, curtilage, cuticular, graticule, lubricant, lubricate, lucrative, ocularist, reticular, revictual, rusticals, suctorial, tularemic, ultrachic, ultrarich, unclarity, utricular, victualer.

+3 letters: alacritous, altruistic, apiculture, articulacy, articulate, auriculate, autarkical, aviculture, bicultural, capitulary, circulated, circulates, circulator, cultivator, curability, curatively, curatorial, curtailers, curtailing, curtilages, duplicator, elucidator, granulitic, graticules, inculcator, inoculator, jocularity, lacustrine, lenticular, liturgical, lubricants, lubricated, lubricates, lubricator, multitrack, ocularists, orbiculate, particular, reticulate, retinacula, revictuals, rustically, scriptural, secularist, secularity, testicular, theurgical, thiouracil, trauchling, trinocular, ulcerating, ulceration, ulcerative, ultrabasic, ultrafiche, ultraistic, ultramafic, ultramicro, ultraslick, ultrasonic, uncritical, urticarial, victualers, victualler.