curtailed, ppl. a.
(kɜːˈteɪld)
Also 6–7 curtalled, etc.
[f. curtail v. and curtal n. + -ed.]
1. Made a curtal; having the tail docked or cut off.
| 1591 Florio Sec. Fruites 43 Another [horse] broken winded, curtald, lame, blinde, foundred. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 419 My curtailed dog. 1610 Fletcher Faithf. Shepherdess To Rdr., With cur-tailed dogs in strings. 1870 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 101 The yelp of curtailed foxes in every generation is the same. |
† b. transf. Shaped at the end as if cut off short.
| 1575 Gascoigne Wks. (1587) 154 A curtolde slipper and a short silke hose. 1592 Greene Def. Conny Catch. (1859) 33 A..peake pendent, either sharpe..or curtold lyke the broad ende of a Moule spade. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 218 The smallest roots of Ellebor, such as be..curtelled, and not sharp pointed in the bottom. |
2. Cut short; shortened, abridged; diminished in length, extent, power, privilege.
| 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iii. 217 But let vs heare their curtalled argumentes. c 1620 S. Smith Serm. (1866) I. 156 With the curtailed skirts of David's ambassadors [cf. 2 Sam. x. 4]. 1641 Milton Reform. i. (1851) 13 They must mew their feathers, and their pounces, and make but curt-tail'd Bishops of them. 1879 Lubbock Addr. Pol. & Educ. x. 205 According to the most curtailed chronology. |
† 3. ? Short-skirted: cf. curtal 3 d. Obs.
| 1624 Fletcher Wife for Month ii. vi, They are curtall'd queanes in hired clothes. |
Hence curˈtailedly adv., shortly, abbreviatedly.
| 1658 W. Burton Itin. Anton. 167 The name thereof..perhaps..was written curtail'dly. |