Other forms: curtailed, curtailing, curtails
To curtail is to cut something short before its natural end. Curtail a visit, severely curtailed, curtail their freedom.
It implies an outside decision rather than a natural finish, so rights and journeys are curtailed but stories are not. The word has nothing to do with tails despite the spelling — it came from an old word for a shortened horse, and the tail was read into it afterwards.
1verbcurtailTo cut something short before its natural end.
“The storm curtailed our holiday, and we flew home three days early.”
curtail is a cutting short.
From curtal, a shortened horse, from Old French court, short, from Latin curtus. The tail spelling was read in later.
Latin
curtus
Old French
courtault — which has been shortened
English, today
curtail
Built from
Alteration of curtal, from Old French courtault (“which has been shortened”), itself from court (“short”) (from Latin curtus) + -ault
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA