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Curtain   /kˈərtən/   Listen
noun
Curtain  n.  
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.
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.)
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. "A curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering."
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.



verb
Curtain  v. t.  (past & past part. curtained; pres. part. curtaining)  To inclose as with curtains; to furnish with curtains. "So when the sun in bed Curtained with cloudy red."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Curtain" Quotes from Famous Books



... pilot shook his head, dismally. "Fancy losing a ship in that silly fashion! Oh, dear! oh dear!" he groaned in lugubrious tones, spreading his damp handkerchief again like a curtain ...
— A Set of Six • Joseph Conrad

... only living creatures in this subterranean world. When the wind lulled, a deeper silence than that of the deserts fell upon the arid, naked rocks, and weighed upon the surface of the ocean. I then desired to pierce the distant haze, and to rend asunder the mysterious curtain that hung across the horizon. Anxious queries arose to my lips. Where did that sea terminate? Where did it lead to? Should we ever know anything ...
— A Journey to the Interior of the Earth • Jules Verne

... extent than in most cases ours does; not a mere room, but the open space before several buildings: and the disclosing the interior of a house by means of the encyclema, may be considered in the same light as the drawing a back curtain on our stage. ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel

... rush into each other's arms, where they remain in two swoons; in the meanwhile the cottage is burned to the ground. Curtain falls for two minutes, and upon its rising the Ninth Regiment is discovered en bivouac on the ruins, its commander, the PRINCE, reclining gracefully ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 13, June 25, 1870 • Various

... constructed in the following manner. a strong pound was first made of timbers, on one side of which there was a small apparture, sufficiently large to admit an Antelope; from each side of this apparture, a curtain was extended to a considerable distance, widening as they receded from the pound.- we passed a rock this evening standing in the middle of the river, and the bed of the river was formed principally of gravel. we encamped this evening on a sand point on Lard. side. a little ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al


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