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United or fastened by a dovetailed joint.

To cut off the end or tail, or any part, of; to shorten; to abridge; to diminish; to reduce. I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion. Shak. Our incomes have been curtailed; his salary has been doubled. Macualay.

A dog with a docked tail; formerly, the dog of a person not qualified to course, which, by the forest laws, must have its tail cut short, partly as a mark, and partly from a notion that the tail is necessary to a dog in running; hence, a dog not fit for sporting. Hope is a curtail dog in some affairs. Shak.…

One who curtails.

The act or result of curtailing or cutting off. Bancroft.

Daggle-tailed; having the tail clogged with daglocks. "Dag- tailed sheep." Bp. Hall.

A slovenly woman; a slattern; a draggle-tail.

Having the lower ends of garments defiled by trailing in mire or filth; draggle-tailed.

one of the small parts; a particular; an item; - - used chiefly in the plural; as, the details of a scheme or transaction. The details of the campaign in Italy. Motley.

One who details.

To free from entailment.

A hardy species of British grass (Cynosurus cristatus) which abounds in grass lands, and is well suited for making straw plait; -- called also goldseed.

A flaring tenon, or tongue (shaped like a bird's tail spread), and a mortise, or socket, into which it fits tightly, making an interlocking joint between two pieces which resists pulling a part in all directions except one. Dovetail molding (Arch.), a molding of any convex section arranged in a sort of zigzag, like a s…

A draggle-tail; a slattern. Halliwell.

A slattern who suffers her gown to trail in the mire; a drabble-tail.

Untidy; sluttish; slatternly. W. Irving.

See Dragon's blood, Dragon's head, etc., under Dragon.

To furnish with battlements; to fortify as with battlements. [Archaic] To embattail and to wall about thy cause With iron-worded proof. Tennyson.

That which is entailed. Hence: (Law)

The act of entailing or of giving, as an estate, and directing the mode of descent.