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curtain

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cur⋅tain

  [kur-tn]
Use curtain in a Sentence
–noun
1. a hanging piece of fabric used to shut out the light from a window, adorn a room, increase privacy, etc.
2. a movable or folding screen used for similar purposes.
3. Chiefly New England. a window shade.
4. Theater.
a. a set of hanging drapery for concealing all or part of the stage or set from the view of the audience.
b. the act or time of raising or opening a curtain at the start of a performance: an 8:30 curtain.
c. the end of a scene or act indicated by the closing or falling of a curtain: first-act curtain.
d. an effect, line, or plot solution at the conclusion of a performance: a strong curtain; weak curtain.
e. music signaling the end of a radio or television performance.
f. (used as a direction in a script of a play to indicate that a scene or act is concluded.)
5. anything that shuts off, covers, or conceals: a curtain of artillery fire.
6. Architecture. a relatively flat or featureless extent of wall between two pavilions or the like.
7. Fortification. the part of a wall or rampart connecting two bastions, towers, or the like.
8. curtains, Slang. the end; death, esp. by violence: It looked like curtains for another mobster.
–verb (used with object)
9. to provide, shut off, conceal, or adorn with, or as if with, a curtain.
—Idioms
10. draw the curtain on or over,
a. to bring to a close: to draw the curtain on a long career of public service.
b. to keep secret.
11. lift the curtain on,
a. to commence; start.
b. to make known or public; disclose: to lift the curtain on a new scientific discovery.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME co(u)rtine < AF, OF < LL cortīna, prob. equiv. to co(ho)rt- (s. of cohors; see court ) + -īna -ine 1 , as calque of Gk aulaía curtain, deriv. of aul courtyard

Related forms:
cur⋅tain⋅less, adjective

Synonyms:
1. drapery, portiere, lambrequin, valance. 1, 3. Curtain, blind, shade, shutter agree in being covers for a window, to shut out light or keep persons from looking in. Curtain, blind, and shade may mean a cover, usually of cloth, which can be rolled up and down inside the window. Curtain, however, may also refer to a drapery at a window; and a Venetian blind consists of slats mounted on tapes for drawing up or down and varying the pitch of the slats. Blind and shutter may mean a cover made of two wooden frames with movable slats, attached by hinges outside a window and pulled together or opened at will. Shutters may mean also a set of panels (wooden or iron) put up outside small shops or stores at closing time.

Regional variation note:
3. See window shade.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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cur·tain   (kûr'tn)   
n.  

  1. Material that hangs in a window or other opening as a decoration, shade, or screen.

  2. Something that functions as or resembles a screen, cover, or barrier: the curtain of mist before the mountain; a heavy curtain of artillery fire.

    1. The movable screen or drape in a theater or hall that separates the stage from the auditorium or that serves as a backdrop.

    2. The rising or opening of a theater curtain at the beginning of a performance or act.

    3. The time at which a theatrical performance begins or is scheduled to begin.

    4. The fall or closing of a theater curtain at the end of a performance or act.

    5. The concluding line, speech, or scene of a play or act.

    6. The end.

    7. Absolute ruin: "If the employee doesn't shape up, it's curtains" (Business Week).

    8. Death.

  4. The part of a rampart or parapet connecting two bastions or gates.

  5. Architecture A curtain wall.

  6. curtains Slang

    1. The end.

    2. Absolute ruin: "If the employee doesn't shape up, it's curtains" (Business Week).

    3. Death.

tr.v.   cur·tained, cur·tain·ing, cur·tains

  1. To provide (something) with or as if with a curtain.

  2. To shut off (something) with or as if with a curtain.


[Middle English cortine, from Old French, from Late Latin cōrtīna, from Latin cōrs, cōrt-, variant of cohors, court; see court.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

curtain 
c.1303, from O.Fr. curtine, from L.L. cortina "curtain," but originally "round vessel, cauldron," from L. cortem (older cohortem) "enclosure, courtyard." The confusion apparently begins in using cortina as a loan-translation for Gk. aulaia ("curtain") in the Vulgate (to render Heb. yeriah in Exodus xxvi:1, etc.) because the Gk. word was connected to aule "court," perhaps because the "door" of a Gk. house that led out to the courtyard was a hung cloth. The fig. sense in curtain call is from 1884. Curtains "the end" is 1912, originally from stage plays.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Bible Dictionary

Curtain

(1.) Ten curtains, each twenty-eight cubits long and four wide, made of fine linen, also eleven made of goat's hair, covered the tabernacle (Ex. 26:1-13; 36:8-17). (2.) The sacred curtain, separating the holy of holies from the sanctuary, is designated by a different Hebrew word (peroketh). It is described as a "veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work" (Ex. 26:31; Lev. 16:2; Num. 18:7). (3.) "Stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain" (Isa. 40:22), is an expression used with reference to the veil or awning which Orientals spread for a screen over their courts in summer. According to the prophet, the heavens are spread over our heads as such an awning. Similar expressions are found in Ps. 104:2l; comp. Isa. 44:24; Job 9:8.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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Idioms & Phrases

curtain

In addition to the idioms beginning with curtain, also see draw the curtain; raise the curtain; ring down the curtain.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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