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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.

To make shorter; to shorten in duration; to lessen; to diminish; to curtail; as, to abridge labor; to abridge power or rights. "The bridegroom . . . abridged his visit." Smollett. She retired herself to Sebaste, and abridged her train from state to necessity. Fuller.

Having the tail cut short, or naturally short; curtailed; as, a bobtailed horse or dog; a bobtailed coat.

To curtail; to cut short. All my reports go with the modest truth; No more nor clipped, but so. Shak. In London they clip their words after one manner about the court, another in the city, and a third in the suburbs. Swift.

The act of cutting off, curtailing, or diminishing; the practice of clipping the edges of coins. clipping by Englishmen is robbing the honest man who receives clipped money. Locke.

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

l eloquence, that he cuts doun the finest orator." Addison (c) To lessen; to retrench; to curtail; as, to cut down expenses. (d) (Naut.) To raze; as, to cut down a frigate into a sloop. -- To cut the knot or the Gordian knot, to dispose of a difficulty summarily; to solve it by prompt, arbitrary action, rather than by…

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

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 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.

An animal, particularly a log, having an uncut tail. Cf. Curtail. Dog.

To lessen; to abridge; to curtail; as, to retrench superfluities or expenses. But this thy glory shall be soon retrenched. Milton.

ch some tones are held longer than their legitimate time, while others are proportionally curtailed.

To cut short; to make small, narrow, or scanty; to curtail. "Scant not my cups." Shak.

Short; scanty; curtailed.

To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc. Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain. Dryden.