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Webster 1913 Edition

Curtain

Cur′tain

(kûr′tĭn; 48)
,
Noun.
[OE.
cortin
,
curtin
,fr. OF.
cortine
,
curtine
, F.
courtine
, LL.
cortina
, curtian (in senses 1 and 2), also, small court, small inclosure surrounded by walls, from
cortis
court. See
Court
.]
1.
A hanging screen intended to darken or conceal, and admitting of being drawn back or up, and reclosed at pleasure; esp., drapery of cloth or lace hanging round a bed or at a window; in theaters, and like places, a movable screen for concealing the stage.
2.
(Fort.)
That part of the rampart and parapet which is between two bastions or two gates. See Illustrations of
Ravelin
and
Bastion
.
3.
(Arch.)
That part of a wall of a building which is between two pavilions, towers, etc.
4.
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.

–
The curtain falls
,
the performance closes.
–
The curtain rises
,
the performance begins.
–
To draw the curtain
,
to close it over an object, or to remove it
; hence:
(a)
To hide or to disclose an object.
(b)
To commence or close a performance.
–
To drop the curtain
,
to end the tale, or close the performance.

Cur′tain

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Curtained
(kûr′tĭnd; 48)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Curtaining
.]
To inclose as with curtains; to furnish with curtains.
So when the sun in bed
Curtained
with cloudy red.
Milton.

Webster 1828 Edition

Curtain

CURTAIN

,
Noun.
[Low L., in fortification. This word may be from the root of court, and from the sense of separating.]
1.
A cloth hanging round a bed, or at a window, which may be contracted, spread or drawn aside at pleasure; intended for ornament, or for use. Also, the hangings about the ark, among the Israelites.
2.
A cloth-hanging used in theaters, to conceal the stage from the spectators. This is raised or let down by cords. Hence the phrases, to drop the curtain, to close the scene, to end; to raise the curtain or the curtain will rise, to denote the opening of the play. And to draw the curtain, is to close it, to shut out the light or to conceal an object; or to open it and disclose the object. Behind the curtain, in concealment, in secret.
3.
In fortification, that part of the rampart which is between the flanks of two bastions, bordered with a parapet five feet high, behind which the soldiers stand to fire on the covered way and into the moat.
4.
In scripture, tents; dwellings. Habakkuk 3:7.

CURTAIN

,
Verb.
T.
To inclose with curtains; to furnish with curtains.

Definition 2024

curtain

curtain

English

Girl surrounded by curtains

Noun

curtain ‎(plural curtains)

  1. A piece of cloth covering a window, bed, etc. to offer privacy and keep out light.
    • 1915, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger, chapter I:
      Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.
  2. A similar piece of cloth that separates the audience and the stage in a theater.
    • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Lisson Grove Mystery:
      “H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what […] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”
  3. (fortifications) The flat area of wall which connects two bastions or towers; the main area of a fortified wall.
  4. (euphemistic, also "final curtain") Death.
  5. (architecture) That part of a wall of a building which is between two pavilions, towers, etc.
  6. (obsolete, derogatory) A flag; an ensign.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

curtain ‎(third-person singular simple present curtains, present participle curtaining, simple past and past participle curtained)

  1. To cover (a window) with a curtain; to hang curtains.
    • 1985, Carol Shields, "Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, Dolls" in The Collected Stories, Random House Canada, 2004, p. 163,
      The window, softly curtained with dotted swiss, became the focus of my desperate hour-by-hour attention.
  2. (figuratively) To hide, cover or separate as if by a curtain.
    • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene 2,
      And, after conflict such as was supposed / The wandering prince and Dido once enjoy'd, / When with a happy storm they were surprised / And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave, / We may, each wreathed in the other's arms, / Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber;
    • 1840, Percy Bysshe Shelley, "A Defence of Poetry"
      But poetry in a more restricted sense expresses those arrangements of language, and especially metrical language, which are created by that imperial faculty; whose throne is curtained within the invisible nature of man.
    • 1958, Ovid, The Metamorphoses, translated by Horace Gregory, New York: Viking, Book IV, Perseus, p. 115,
      He saw a rock that pierced the shifting waters / As they stilled, now curtained by the riding / Of the waves, and leaped to safety on it.
    • 2003, A. B. Yehoshua, The Liberated Bride (2001), translated by Hillel Halkin, Harcourt, Part 2, Chapter 17, p. 115,
      But bleakness still curtained the gray horizon.

Translations

Synonyms

See also

Etymology

From Middle English curteyn, corteyn, cortyn, cortine, from Old French cortine, from Medieval Latin cōrtīna ‎(“curtain”), from Latin cohors ‎(“court, enclosure”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkɜːtn̩/
  • IPA(key): /ˈkɝtn̩/
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(r)tən

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