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Characterized by exessive brevity; short; rudely concise; as, curt limits; a curt answer. The curt, yet comprehensive reply. W. Irving.

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.

t 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.

A flag; an ensign; -- in contempt. [Obs.] Shak. Behind the curtain, in concealment; in secret. -- Curtain lecture, a querulous lecture given by a wife to her husband within the bed curtains, or in bed. Jerrold. A curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffer…

Curt; brief; laconic. Essays and curtal aphorisms. Milton. Curtal dog. See Curtail dog.

A corruption of Cutlass.

A friar who acted as porter at the gate of a monastery. Sir W. Scott.

The pointless sword carried before English monarchs at their coronation, and emblematically considered as the sword of mercy; -- also called the sword of Edward the Confessor.

rpendicular, let fall from the planet upon the plane of the ecliptic, meets the ecliptic. Curtate cycloid. (Math.) See Cycloid.

The interval by which the curtate distance of a planet is less than the true distance.

Same as Curtana.

Courteous. [Obs.] Chaucer.

the life estate which a husband has in the lands of his deceased wife, which by the common law takes effect where he has had issue by her, born alive, and capable of inheriting the lands. Mozley & W.

A yard, courtyard, or piece of ground, included within the fence surrounding a dwelling house. Burrill.

In a curt manner.

The quality of bing curt.

Same as Courtesy, an act of respect.

To cut short; to curtail. [Obs.] Bale.