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Webster 1913 Edition


Curtail dog

Cur′tail dogˊ

(dŏgˊ; 115)
.
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.
Shakespeare