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curtain

noun
/ˈkɜːtn̩/UK/ˈkɜɹt(ə)n/US

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English curtine, from Old French cortine, from Late Latin cōrtīna (“curtain”), a calque from Ancient Greek.

  1. derived from cōrtīna — “curtain”
  2. derived from cortine
  3. inherited from curtine

Definitions

  1. A piece of cloth covering a window, bed, etc. to offer privacy and keep out light.

    • He drew the curtains at 11:00pm before falling asleep.

  2. A similar piece of cloth that separates the audience and the stage in a theater.

  3. The beginning of a show

    The beginning of a show; the moment the curtain rises.

    • He took so long to shave his head that we arrived 45 minutes after curtain and were denied late entry.
  4. ›+ 7 more definitions

    1. The flat area of wall which connects two bastions or towers

      The flat area of wall which connects two bastions or towers; the main area of a fortified wall.

      • Captain Rense, beleagring the Citie of Errona for us, […] caused a forcible mine to be wrought under a great curtine of the walles […].

    2. Death, final curtain.

      • For life is quite absurd / And death's the final word / You must always face the curtain with a bow.

    3. That part of a wall of a building which is between two pavilions, towers, etc.

    4. A flag

      A flag; an ensign.

      • Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose

    5. The uninterrupted stream of fluid that falls onto a moving substrate in the process of…

      The uninterrupted stream of fluid that falls onto a moving substrate in the process of curtain coating.

    6. To cover (a window) with a curtain

      To cover (a window) with a curtain; to hang curtains.

      • The window, softly curtained with dotted swiss, became the focus of my desperate hour-by-hour attention.

    7. To hide, cover or separate as if by a curtain.

      • 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.
      • 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.

The neighborhood

Derived

act curtain, air curtain, bamboo curtain, bedcurtain, beef curtains, behind the curtain, blackout curtain, bring down the curtain, bring the curtain down, cafe curtains, chin curtain, curtain array, curtain bangs, curtain call, curtain coating, curtainfic, curtain lecture, curtainless, curtainlike, curtain off, curtain-raise, curtain raiser, curtain-raiser, curtain ring, curtain rod, curtain-sider, curtainsider, curtain time, curtain twitcher, curtain-twitcher, curtainwall, curtain wall, curtainwise, draw the curtains, drop curtain, encurtain, final curtain, fortification curtain, front curtain, front-of-house curtain · +26 more

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for curtain. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA