| 释义 |
▪ I. curt, a.|kɜːt|
[ad. L. curt-us cut or broken short, mutilated, abridged, which became in late L. and Romanic the ordinary word for ‘short’: It., Sp. corto, Pr. cort, F. court.
The Latin adj. was app. adopted at an early date in Ger., giving OS. and OFris. curt (MDu. cort, Du., MLG., and LG. kort, whence also mod.Icel. korta, Sw. and Da. kort), OHG. kurt, kurz (MHG. and mod.Ger. kurz), where the word has taken the place of an original Teut. *skurt-, in OHG. scurz, in OE. scort, sceort, short. But the latter was retained in English.]
1. Short in linear dimension; shortened.
1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 295 In more temperate climes hair is curt. 1840Lytton Pilgr. of Rhine xix, Thy limbs are crooked and curt. 1862Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) III. xxviii. 297 Plancus..enacted the part of the sea-god Glaucus in curt cerulean vestments.
b. of things immaterial, modes of action, etc.
1664H. More Myst. Iniq. 351 For which curt reckoning Grotius has no excuse. 1675Traherne Chr. Ethics xx. 318 That vertue so curt and narrow, which we thought to be infinite. a1677Barrow Serm. (1687) I. xviii. 258 The most curt and compendious way of bringing about dishonest or dishonourable designs. 1874Reynolds John Bapt. ii. 89 An angelic Spirit makes a more curt and much easier use than we can do of the functions of matter in its most etherial form.
2. Of words, sentences, style, etc.: Concise, brief, condensed, terse; short to a fault.
1630B. Jonson New Inn iii. i, What's his name? Fly. Old Peck. Tip. Maestro de campo, Peck! his name is curt, A monosyllable, but commands the horse well. 1645Milton Tetrach. (1851) 177 The obscure and curt Ebraisms that follow. 1791Boswell Johnson (1887) III. 274 He could put together only curt frittered fragments of his own. 1814D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 132 Their Saxon-English is nearly monosyllabic, and their phraseology curt. 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. iii. 61 The dry and curt language of a petition in parliament.
b. So brief as to be wanting in courtesy or suavity.
1831Disraeli Yng. Duke v. vii. (L.), ‘Ah! I know what you are going to say’, observed the gentleman in a curt, gruffish voice, ‘It is all nonsense.’ 1863Geo. Eliot Romola (1880) I. Introd. 9 He might have been a little less defiant and curt, though, to Lorenzo de' Medici.
▪ II. † curt, v. Obs.
[f. L. curt-āre to cut short, shorten, mutilate, f. curtus short.]
trans. To cut short, shorten.
a1618Sylvester Mem. Mortalitie i. xciii, Curting thy life, hee takes thy Card away.
Hence † ˈcurted ppl. a., shortened, curtailed, curt.
1568North tr. Gueuara's Diall Pr. iv. viii. 129 a, To see a foolish courtier weare..a litel curted cape. 1581Sidney Astr. & Stella xcii, Be your words made, good Sir, of Indian ware, That you allow me them by so small rate? Or do you curtted Spartanes imitate? 1610J. Guillim Heraldry iv. xiv. (1611) 229 The old Britans..were wont to weare a short and broad Sword; so did the Spartanes also, whom..their Enemies mocked for so curted a weapon.
▪ III. curt, curtace
obs. ff. court, courteous. |