CURTAIN • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Curtain

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/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."

See images of 'Curtain'

Etymology of 'Curtain'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Curtain" Quotes from Famous Books

... which was erected about the year 1471, is still quite Gothic. In the wall there opens a large pointed and cusped arch, within which at the top there hangs a small tent which, passing through a ring, turns into a great stone curtain upheld by hairy wild men. Inside this curtain Dom Fernao lies in armour on a tomb whose front is covered with beautifully carved foliage, and which has a cornice of roses. On it are three coats of arms, Dom Fernao's, those ...

— Portuguese Architecture • Walter Crum Watson

... child is to be admitted who cannot read and write; the second apartment is for those who are taught by the under-master; the third is for the boys of the upper form, taught by the high master. These two parts of the school are divided by a curtain, to be drawn at will. Over the headmaster's chair is an image of the boy Jesus, a beautiful work, in the gesture of teaching, whom all the scholars, going and departing, salute with a hymn. There is a representation of God the Father, also, saying, 'Hear ye him,' which words were written ...

— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury

... government teachers and books are "all positively heathen or quite destitute of all religion." In some parts of the country the government schools secure the attendance of high-caste girls by allowing them to be placed behind a curtain, and thus screened from the eyes of the male teacher or inspector, as all the women of such classes are screened from male visitors. Even the physician sees only a hand protruded from under a curtain, and by the touch of this, with a few unsatisfactory answers to his questions, he is ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various

... we speak things were quiet at the offices. The line of pigeon-holes in the wire curtain was deserted by the public, though the linoleum-covered floor bore abundant traces of a busy morning. Misty London light shone hazily through the glazed windows and cast dark shadows in the corners. ...

— The Firm of Girdlestone • Arthur Conan Doyle

... waste our griefs and sorrows. They absorb us sometimes with vain regrets. They jaundice and embitter us sometimes with rebellious thoughts. They often break the springs of activity and of interest in others, and of sympathy with others. But their true intention is to draw back the thin curtain, and to show us 'the things that are,' the realities of the throned God, the skirts that fill the Temple, the hovering seraphim, and the coal from the ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren

Copyright © 2025 Free-Translator.com