English

Verb

curtain-raise ‎(third-person singular simple present curtain-raises, present participle curtain-raising, simple past and past participle curtain-raised)

1. To introduce; to prefigure, to set the stage for.
   • 1965, Herbert David Croly, The New Republic, vol. 153:

     The fall and humiliation of Algerian President Ahmed ben Bella were carefully timed to curtain-raise what Bella intended as his biggest show, the "Second Bandung Conference."

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, ‘The Men Who Made England’, The Atlantic, Mar 2010:

     Curtain-raised here, also, is Cromwell's eventual readiness to smash the monasteries and confiscate their revenue and property to finance the building of a modern state [...].