Curtail
Contents
English
Verb
Curtail (third-person singular simple present Curtails, present participle Curtailing, simple past and past participle Curtailed) (transitive)
- (obsolete) To cut short the tail of an animal
- Curtailing horses procured long horse-hair.
- To shorten or abridge the duration of something; to truncate.
- When the audience grew restless, the speaker curtailed her speech.
- (figuratively) To limit or restrict, keep in check.
- Their efforts to curtail spending didn't quite succeed.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Adverbs for Curtail
sharply; considerably; drastically; harmfully; detrimentally; abruptly; unexpectedly; nominally; promptly.
Thesaurus
abate, abbreviate, abrade, abridge, abstract, arrest, bate, bereave, bleed, bob, boil down, bridle, capsulize, check, circumscribe, clip, coarct, compact, compress, concentrate, condense, consolidate, constrain, constrict, constringe, contain, contract, control, cool, cool off, cramp, crop, curb, cut, cut back, cut down, cut off, cut off short, cut short, damp, dampen, decelerate, decrease, deduct, deflate, depreciate, depress, deprive, deprive of, derogate, detract, diminish, disentitle, disparage, divest, dock, dompt, downgrade, drain, draw, draw in, draw together, ease one of, eat away, elide, enjoin, epitomize, erode, extract, file away, foreshorten, govern, guard, hinder, hold, hold at bay, hold back, hold fast, hold in, hold in check, hold in leash, hold up, impair, inhibit, keep, keep back, keep from, keep in, keep in check, keep under control, knit, lay under restraint, leach, lessen, lighten one of, lower, milk, mine, minify, mow, narrow, nip, pare, poll, pollard, prohibit, prune, pucker, pucker up, pull, pull in, purify, purse, reap, recap, recapitulate, reduce, refine, rein, rein in, remove, restrain, retard, retrench, roll back, rub away, scale down, set back, shave, shear, shorten, simplify, slash, slow down, snub, solidify, step down, straiten, strangle, strangulate, stunt, subduct, subtract, sum up, summarize, synopsize, take away, take away from, take from, take in, tap, telescope, thin, thin out, trim, truncate, tune down, wear away, weed, withdraw, withhold, wrinkle
