curtail
verb /kɜːˈteɪl/
/kɜːrˈteɪl/
(formal)Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they curtail | /kɜːˈteɪl/ /kɜːrˈteɪl/ |
| he / she / it curtails | /kɜːˈteɪlz/ /kɜːrˈteɪlz/ |
| past simple curtailed | /kɜːˈteɪld/ /kɜːrˈteɪld/ |
| past participle curtailed | /kɜːˈteɪld/ /kɜːrˈteɪld/ |
| -ing form curtailing | /kɜːˈteɪlɪŋ/ /kɜːrˈteɪlɪŋ/ |
- curtail something to limit something or make it last for a shorter time
- Spending on books has been severely curtailed.
- The lecture was curtailed by the fire alarm going off.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- drastically
- seriously
- severely
- …
Word Originlate 15th cent.: from obsolete curtal ‘horse with a docked tail’, from French courtault, from court ‘short’, from Latin curtus. The change in the ending was due to association with tail and perhaps also with French tailler ‘to cut’.