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r moist with, dew. A dewy mist Went and watered all the ground. Milton. When dewy eve her curtain draws. Keble.

al; to make known; to show (what has been secret, unseen, or unknown). Go, draw aside the curtains, and discover The several caskets to this noble prince. Shak. Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue. Bacon. We will discover ourselves unto them. 1 Sam. xiv. 8. Discover not a secret…

To explore by diving; to plunge into. [R.] The Curtii bravely dived the gulf of fame. Denham. He dives the hollow, climbs the steeps. Emerson.

to cut off, as the end of a thing; to curtail; to cut short; to clip; as, to dock the tail of a horse. His top was docked like a priest biforn. Chaucer.

A curtain which drops or falls in front of the stage of a theater, etc.

o effectuate his desire. Sir P. Sidney. In order to effectuate the thorough reform. G. T. Curtis.

A work in which the contents of a former work are reduced within a smaller space by curtailment and condensation; a brief summary; an abridgement. [An] epitome of the contents of a very large book. Sydney Smith.

To diminish, as by cutting off something; to curtail; as, to epitomize words. [Obs.] Addison.

That part of a bastion which reaches from the curtain to the face, and defends the curtain, the flank and face of the opposite bastion; any part of a work defending another by a fire along the outside of its parapet. See Illust. of Bastion.

A large bedstead with tall posts at the corners to support curtains. [Colloq.]

The beginning. "Summer's front." Shak. Bastioned front (Mil.), a curtain connerting two half bastions. -- Front door, the door in the front wall of a building, usually the principal entrance. -- Front of fortification, the works constructed upon any one side of a polygon. Farrow. -- Front of operations, all that par…

ence or decoration in a house or apartment, as tables, chairs, bedsteads, sofas, carpets, curtains, pictures, vases, etc.

m to Mecca; -- used among Orientals as a respectful salutation or a title of honor. G. W. Curtis.

y of a Coptic church. It contains the high altar, and is usually closed by an embroidered curtain.

or escaping; to sustain; to restrain; to keep in the grasp; to retain. The loops held one curtain to another. Ex. xxxvi. 12. Thy right hand shall hold me. Ps. cxxxix. 10. They all hold swords, being expert in war. Cant. iii. In vain he seeks, that having can not hold. Spenser. France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the t…

An outwork composed of two demibastions joined by a curtain. It is connected with the works in rear by long wings.

riated in payment of his debt. This is a right in the thing, or jus in re. Pothier. B. R. Curtis. There are but few cases, if any, in our law, where an hypothecation, in the strict sense of the Roman law, exists; that is a pledge without possession by the pledgee. Story.

al or official life; as, the Jenkins employed by a newspaper. [Colloq. Eng. & U.S.] G. W. Curtis.

rt decorative hanging, pendent from a shelf or from the casing above a window, hiding the curtain fixtures, or the like.

A light open cotton fabric used for window curtains.