Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

cur·tain       (kûr'tn)  Pronunciation Key  n.   Material that hangs in a window or other opening as a decoration, shade, or screen. Something that functions as or resembles a screen, cover, or barrier: the curtain of mist before the mountain; a heavy curtain of artillery fire. The movable screen or drape in a theater or hall that separates the stage from the auditorium or that serves as a backdrop. The rising or opening of a theater curtain at the beginning of a performance or act. The time at which a theatrical performance begins or is scheduled to begin. The fall or closing of a theater curtain at the end of a performance or act. The concluding line, speech, or scene of a play or act. The end. Absolute ruin: "If the employee doesn't shape up, it's curtains" (Business Week). Death. The part of a rampart or parapet connecting two bastions or gates. Architecture A curtain wall. curtains Slang The end. Absolute ruin: "If the employee doesn't shape up, it's curtains" (Business Week). Death. tr.v.   cur·tained, cur·tain·ing, cur·tains To provide (something) with or as if with a curtain. 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.]

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
curtain 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

curtain
noun
1.	hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window)
2.	any barrier to communication or vision; "a curtain of secrecy"; "a curtain of trees"
verb
1.	provide with drapery; "curtain the bedrooms"

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Curtain

Court\ (k?rt), n. [OF. court, curt, cort, F. co?r, LL. cortis, fr. L. cohors, cors, chors, gen. cohortis, cortis, chortis, an inclosure, court, thing inclosed, crowd, throng; co- + a root akin to Gr. ???? inclosure, feeding place, and to E. garden, yard, orchard. See Yard, and cf. Cohort, Curtain.]

1. An inclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different building; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley.

The courts the house of our God. --Ps. cxxxv. 2.

And round the cool green courts there ran a row Cf cloisters. --Tennyson.

Goldsmith took a garret in a miserable court. --Macaulay.

2. The residence of a sovereign, prince, nobleman, or ether dignitary; a palace.

Attends the emperor in his royal court. --Shak.

This our court, infected with their manners, Shows like a riotous inn. --Shak.

3. The collective body of persons composing the retinue of a sovereign or person high in authority; all the surroundings of a sovereign in his regal state.

My lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door would speak with you. --Shak.

Love rules the court, the camp, the grove. --Sir. W. Scott.

4. Any formal assembling of the retinue of a sovereign; as, to hold a court.

The princesses held their court within the fortress. --Macaulay.

5. Attention directed to a person in power; conduct or address designed to gain favor; courtliness of manners; civility; compliment; flattery.

No solace could her paramour intreat Her once to show, ne court, nor dalliance. --Spenser.

I went to make my court to the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle. --Evelyn.

6. (Law) (a) The hall, chamber, or place, where justice is administered. (b) The persons officially assembled under authority of law, at the appropriate time and place, for the administration of justice; an official assembly, legally met together for the transaction of judicial business; a judge or judges sitting for the hearing or trial of causes. (c) A tribunal established for the administration of justice. (d) The judge or judges; as distinguished from the counsel or jury, or both.

Most heartily I do beseech the court To give the judgment. --Shak.

7. The session of a judicial assembly.

8. Any jurisdiction, civil, military, or ecclesiastical.

9. A place arranged for playing the game of tennis; also, one of the divisions of a tennis court.

Christian court, the English ecclesiastical courts in the aggregate, or any one of them.

Court breeding, education acquired at court.

Court card. Same as Coat card.

Court circular, one or more paragraphs of news respecting the sovereign and the royal family, together with the proceedings or movements of the court generally, supplied to the newspapers by an officer specially charged with such duty. [Eng.] --Edwards.

Court day, a day on which a court sits to administer justice.

Court dress, the dress prescribed for appearance at the court of a sovereign.

Court fool, a buffoon or jester, formerly kept by princes and nobles for their amusement.

Court guide, a directory of the names and adresses of the nobility and gentry in a town.

Court hand, the hand or manner of writing used in records and judicial proceedings. --Shak.

Court lands (Eng. Law), lands kept in demesne, -- that is, for the use of the lord and his family.

Court marshal, one who acts as marshal for a court.

Court party, a party attached to the court.

Court rolls, the records of a court. SeeRoll.

Court in banc, or Court in bank, The full court sitting at its regular terms for the hearing of arguments upon questions of law, as distinguished from a sitting at nisi prius.

Court of Arches, audience, etc. See under Arches, Audience, etc.

Court of Chancery. See Chancery, n.

Court of Common pleas. (Law) See Common pleas, under Common.

Court of Equity. See under Equity, and Chancery.

Court of Inquiry (Mil.), a court appointed to inquire into and report on some military matter, as the conduct of an officer.

Court of St. James, the usual designation of the British Court; -- so called from the old palace of St. James, which is used for the royal receptions, levees, and drawing-rooms.

The court of the Lord, the temple at Jerusalem; hence, a church, or Christian house of worship.

General Court, the legislature of a State; -- so called from having had, in the colonial days, judicial power; as, the General Court of Massachusetts. [U.S.]

To pay one's court, to seek to gain favor by attentions. "Alcibiades was assiduous in paying his court to Tissaphernes." --Jowett.

To put out of court, to refuse further judicial hearing.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Curtain

Cur"tain\ (k?r"t?n; 48), n. [OE. cortin, curtin,fr. OF. cortine, curtine, F. courtine, LL. cortina, curtian (in senses 1 and 2), also, small court, small inclosure surrounded by walls, from cortis court. See Court.]

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. See Illustrations of Ravelin and Bastion.

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.] --Shak.

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. --Jerrold.

A curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. --W. Irving.

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.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.