Forms: 4–6 cortyn)e, -eyn(e, courtyn(e, -ein(e, -ayn, curtyn(e, -ein(e, -eyn(e, -ayn(e, 4–7 courtin(e, curten, -ine, 4–8 cortine, curtin, (4 couertine, 5 quirtayn, 5–6 courting), 6 cortaine, -ayne, (curteynge, cowrtyng), 6–8 courtain(e, 7–8 curtaine, 4, 7– curtain. [ME. cortine, curtine, a. OF. cortine, courtine in same sense = Sp. and It. cortina:—L. cortīna, in Vulgate (Exod. xxvi. 1, etc.) a curtain. The connection of this with classical L. cortīna round vessel, cauldron, round cavity, vault, arch, circle, is obscure, and the etymology uncertain: see Körting Lat.-Roman. Wbch. s.v.]
1. A piece of cloth or similar material suspended by the top so as to admit of being withdrawn sideways, and serving as a screen or hanging for purposes of use or ornament; e.g., to enclose a bed (the earliest English use), to separate one part of a room from another, to regulate the admission of light at a window, to prevent draught at a door or other opening, etc.
[a. 1186. Robert of Torigni, Chron. (Rolls), 292. Cortinæ illæ circa lectum conjugis suæ.]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11240 (Cott.). Was þar na pride o couerled, chamber curtin [v.r. curten, -ain, -eyn] ne tapit.
c. 1320. Sir Beues, 3217. A couertine on raile tre, For noman scholde on his bed ise.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 854. Þer beddyng watz noble, Of cortynes of clene sylk, wyth cler golde hemmez.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, I. iv. (1483), 4. By ouer drawynge of a grete corteyne.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 267. Ane burely bed … Closit with Courtingis, and cumlie cled.
1552. Huloet, Curtayne aboute a hall.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxxiv. 545. The Veile or Courtaine of the Temple did rend a sunder.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, V. ii. I’le get vp, Behind the cortine, on a stoole, and harken.
1674. Brevint, Saul at Endor, 167. A great Cortin, that hanged before our Ladies Image.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4033/4. Lost … 3 Damask Window-Curtains.
1712. Budgell, Spect., No. 313, ¶ 16. There is a Curtain which used to be drawn across the Room.
1827. O. W. Roberts, Centr. Amer., 78. Under the necessity of using mosquito curtains.
b. To draw the curtain: (a) to draw it back or aside, so as to discover what is behind; (b) to draw it forward in front of an object, so as to cover or conceal it. Also fig.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys, 14. I drawe the curtyns to shewe my bokes then.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 72. Such a man, so faint, so spiritlesse … Drew Priams Curtaine, in the dead of night.
1657. Lusts Dominion, I. i. (Stage Direct.), Eleazar, sitting on a chair suddenly draws the curtain.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 19, ¶ 3. I started up and drew my Curtains to look if any one was near me.
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 4. I shall … try to ‘draw the curtain of Time, and shew the picture of Genius.’
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., Introd. vi. To drawe a curtayne I dare not to presume, Nor hyde my matter with a misty smoke.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. vi. 89. Make no noise, make no noise, draw the Curtaines.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 980. While Evening draws her crimson curtains round.
† c. Applied in the Bible to the skins or pieces of cloth with which a tent or tabernacle was hung; the canvas of a tent.
1382. Wyclif, Ex. xxvi. 1. The tabernacle forsothe thow shalt make thus; ten curteyns [Vulg. decem cortinas].
1535. Coverdale, 2 Sam. vii. 2. The Arke of God dwelleth amonge the curtaynes [Vulg. in medio pellium].
1611. Bible, Hab. iii. 7. The curtaines of the land of Midian did tremble.
d. Applied variously to hanging pieces of cloth or fabric: as, a veil, an overhanging shade of a bonnet, an ensign. Curtain of mail: the piece of chain-mail hanging from the edge of a helmet of the Saracen type; the camail.
1541. Elyot, Image Gou., 21. Your predecessors … wold not be seen of the people but seldome, and oftentymes with a courteine before theyr visage.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. ii. 41. Their ragged Curtaines poorely are let loose, And our Ayre shakes them passing scornefully.
1889. A. Stevens & H. Gervex, in Century Mag., Dec., 260/2. When our grandmothers had curtains to their bonnets.
2. In a theater, etc.: The screen separating the stage from the auditorium, which is drawn up at the beginning and dropped at the end of the play or of a separate act. To call (an actor) before the curtain: to summon him to appear after the curtain falls to mark one’s appreciation of his performance. Also in various phrases used fig., To drop or raise the curtain, to end or begin an action; the curtain falls, drops, or rises, etc.
1599. [see 7].
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Cypress Grove, Wks. (1711), 125. Every one cometh there to act his part of this tragi-comedy, called life, which done, the courtain is drawn, and he removing is said to dy.
1677. [see b].
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 193, ¶ 3. I have been bred up behind the Curtain, and been a Prompter from the Time of the Restoration.
1752. Young, Brothers, V. i. No; death lets fall The curtain, and divides our loves for ever.
1768. Goldsm., Good-n. Man, IV. Cro. Perhaps this very moment the tragedy is beginning. Mrs. Cro. Then let us reserve our distress till the rising of the curtain.
1811. Byron, Hints from Hor., 216. The hands of all Applaud in thunder at the curtain’s fall.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 13 Sept., 4–5. Macready … as Richard III., was the first actor to be summoned before the curtain at Covent Garden.
b. Behind the curtain: ‘behind the scenes,’ away from the public view.
1677. Gilpin, Dæmonol. (1867), 130. To put us in mind who it is that is at work behind the curtain, when we see such things acted upon the stage.
1682. Enq. Elect. Sheriffs, 26. Some behind the curtain had undoubtedly laid the project.
1763. Ld. Barrington, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 449, IV. 461. Lord Bute … declares he will not be Minister behind the Curtain, but give up business entirely.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. viii. 631. The circumstances, however, which constituted the real nature of the transaction were only behind the curtain.
3. transf. and fig. Anything that covers or hides.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. v. Under curtyn and veyle of honeste Is closed chaunge and mutabilitye.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 407. The fringed Curtaines of thine eye aduance, And say what thou see’st yond.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), III. 141. The moon appeared in the middle of the firmament, enveloped with a cloudy curtain, which was gradually dissipated by her rays.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. ii. § 2. The circular curtain called the iris.
1858. Longf., Birds of Passage, Jewish Cemetery, ii. The trees … o’er their sleep wave their broad curtains.
4. Fortif. The plain wall of a fortified place; the part of the wall that connects two bastions, towers, gates, or similar structures. Complement of the curtain: see COMPLEMENT.
1569. Stocker, trans. Diod. Sic., I. iv. 9. The towne was well manned … and the curten of suche heigth and thicknes that the besieged with great ease became victors.
1571. Digges, Pantom., I. xxv. H b. Laders that shall reache from the brym of the ditch or edge of the counterscarfe, to the top of the wal or curtein.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, I. III. 113. They … pass’d within forty paces of the Courtine which play’d upon them all the while.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, II. xii. The curtain, Sir, is the word we use in fortification, for that part of the wall … which lies between the two bastions.
1871. Daily News, 7 Feb., 3/3. There is a small breach in the curtain of the southern front.
b. Archit. A plain enclosing wall not supporting a roof.
1633. J. Done, Hist. Septuagint, 61. About the same [the temple] is a girt of three Curtaines of Wals raysed in the Ayre, to the height [etc.].
1865. W. G. Palgrave, Arabia, I. 76. A large semicircular curtain … built roughly and unsymmetrically with rubble and coarse blocks.
1879. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. 59. The wall, in fact (where the system [of attaching buttresses] was carried to its extreme limits), became a mere curtain.
5. Nat. Hist. a. In mushrooms or fungi, the velum partiale, a marginal veil hanging from the pileus as a shreddy membrane. b. In bivalve mollusks, the inner pendent margin of the mantle.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), IV. 155. When very young some woolly fibres connect the pileus to the stem in place of a curtain.
1846. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 175. Profusely covered over its pileus, curtain, and stem, with a yellowish powder.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 260. Animal (of meleagrina) with mantle-lobes united at one point by the gills, their margins fringed and furnished with a pendent curtain; curtains fringed in the branchial region.
6. techn. a. A partition in the leaden chamber in which sulphurous acid is converted into sulphuric acid. b. The piece of leather that overlaps the parting of a portmanteau, trunk, etc. c. In some locks, a circular plate revolving round the keyhole, which closes it up when any instrument is introduced in an attempt to pick the lock.
1874. in Knight, Dict. Mech.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 958. These leaden chambers are sometimes divided into 3 or 4 compartments by leaden curtains placed in them…. These curtains serve to detain the vapours, and cause them to advance in a gradual manner through the chamber.
7. attrib. a. Pertaining to a curtain or curtains.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, III. xi. 226. What ere he saies Is warranted by Curtaine plaudities.
1881. Daily News, 22 Aug., 3/5. In the curtain department an increased business is being done…. Many curtain machines are still well employed.
1885. ‘M. Twain,’ in Century Mag., XXIX. 553/2. A long curtain-calico gown.
† b. Done behind the curtains; secret, hidden.
1660. Hickeringill, Jamaica (1661), 69. We thunder fear, A toy to th’ Curtain-whisper in the Ear.
1673. Janeway, Heaven on E. (1847), 135. He knew … our most secret workings, our closet curtain-business.
8. Comb., as curtain-cord, -lifter; curtain-like adj.; curtain-angle, the angle formed at a bastion, etc., where the curtain begins; † curtain-coach, a coach with curtains in the window-spaces; curtain-paper (see quot.); curtain-pole, = curtain-rod; curtain-raiser (slang), a short opening piece performed before the principal play of the evening (cf. lever de rideau); curtain-ring, one of the rings by which a curtain is hung on the curtain rod, and which slide on the rod when the curtain is drawn; curtain-rod, the horizontal rod from which a curtain is suspended; curtain-wall, see sense 4 b. Also CURTAIN-LECTURE, -SERMON.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4224/3. Three Hackney Glass Coaches … and a very good *Curtain Coach to carry 6 People.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 58. Take a smalle *curteyne corde, and bynde it harde about the beastes necke.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Curtain-paper, a peculiar kind of paper-hangings made in the Western States of America … used as substitutes for roller blinds by a large class of people.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Curtain-paper, a heavy paper, printed and otherwise ornamented, for window-shades.
1886. Birm. Wkly Mercury, 23 Oct., 5. The slight opening pieces, or *‘curtain raisers’ as they are profanely styled … are often hurried through amid much confusion.
1892. Leeds Mercury, 1 April, 5/3. A new piece … put on as a curtain-raiser for ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan.’
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 12 § 2. No Merchant Stranger … shall bring into this Realm … Hanging Lavers, *Curtain-rings, Cards for Wooll.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), III. 123. I’ll rattle his Curtain-rings every Night.
c. 1505. Churchw. Acc. St. Dunstan’s, Canterbury, For *curten roddis and hookys.
1792. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ode to Margate Hoy, Wks. 1812, III. 65. With fingers … loaded much like Curtain-rods with Rings.
1853. Turner, Dom. Archit., III. II. vii. 226. A *curtain wall connecting it.
1879. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. 250. As buttresses increased in projection, greater and greater openings in the curtain wall were ventured on.
