[n. of action from L. curtāre to shorten.]
† 1. Alch. The shorter process for transmuting metals into gold. Obs.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XIV. v. 301. In this art there are two waies, the one called longation, the other curtation.
1606. Breton, Ourania, Song K iij a. Perilous is the way of Curtation.
1699. R. L’Estrange, Colloq. Erasm. (1711), 217. Vouchsafe to instruct me in the blessed way of Curtation.
2. Astron. The difference between the true and the curtate distance of a planet from the sun.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Curtation of a Planet, is a little part cut off from the Line of its Interval, or Distance from the Sun.
1726. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 467. The Curtation, which being substracted from the Distance of the Planet from the Sun in its own Orbit … leaves the Curtate Distance of the Planet from the Sun.
