Curtain

/ˈkɜːtn̩/ · noun

Meaning

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

Definitions by Sense

1. A piece of cloth covering a window, bed, etc. to offer privacy and keep out light.
2. A similar piece of cloth that separates the audience and the stage in a theater.
3. (theater, by extension) The beginning of a show; the moment the curtain rises.
4. (fortifications) The flat area of wall which connects two bastions or towers; the main area of a fortified wall.
5. (euphemistic, sometimes in the plural) Death, final curtain.
6. (architecture) That part of a wall of a building which is between two pavilions, towers, etc.
7. (obsolete, derogatory) A flag; an ensign.
8. The uninterrupted stream of fluid that falls onto a moving substrate in the process of curtain coating.

Example Sentences

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

Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.

It is realised that the old Pullman standard sleeper, with its convertible "sections", each containing upper and lower berths, and with no greater privacy at night than the curtains drawn along both sides of a middle aisle, has had its day.

“H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what[…]will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday[…]that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth.[…]”

He took so long to shave his head that we arrived 45 minutes after curtain and were denied late entry.

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

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

Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose

Synonyms for curtain

Antonyms for curtain

Related Words

Word Forms

• curtains
• curtaining
• curtained

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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