4 S 9 
CUR 
that had their tails cut being called curtal dogs, the word 
was .vulgarly conceived to mean originally to cut ihe tail, 
and was in time written according to that notion.] To 
cutoff; to cut fhort; to fhorten.—Perhaps the humour 
of fpeaking no more than we mud, has fo tniferably cur¬ 
tailed forne of our words; and, in familiar writings and 
converfations, they often, lofe all but their firft fyllables. 
Addifon, 
I that am curtail'd of all fair proportion, 
Deform’d, unfiriiih’d, fent before my time 
Into this breathing world. Skakefpeare. 
It has of before the thing cut off.'—'The count allured 
the court, that F..£t his antagonist had taken a wrong 
name, having curtailed it of three letters; for that his 
name was not Fait, but FaFtion. Addifon. 
CUR'TAIL DOG, f A dog lawcd, or mutilated ac¬ 
cording to the forcfl laws, whole tail is cut off, and who 
is therefore hindered in courfing. Perhaps this word 
may be the original of cur. —i, amazed, ran from her as 
a witch ; and I think if my bread had not been made of 
faith, and my heart of (teel, fhe h ;d transformed me to a 
curtail dog, and made turn i’ th’ wheel. Skakefpeare. 
CUR'TAIN,yi [ cortina , Lat.] A cloth contracted or 
expanded at pleafure, to admit or exclude the light; to 
conceal or difcover any thing ; to fhade a bed ; to darken 
a room.—Their curtains ought to be kept open, fo as to 
renew the air. Arbuthnot. 
Sol through white curtains (hot a tim’rous ray. 
And op’d thofe eyes that mull eclij fe the day. Pope. 
To draw the Curtain. To clofe it, fo as to fhut out the 
light, or conceal the objeCt.—I muff draw a curtain be¬ 
fore the work for a while, and keep your patience a little 
in fufpenle. Burnet. —Once more I write fo you, and this 
once will be the lafl : the curtain will foon be drawn be¬ 
tween my friend and me, and nothing left but to wifh 
you a long good night. Pope. —To open it, fo as to dif- 
cern the objeCt: 
So foen as the all-cheering fun 
Should in the fartheft eaft beginto draw 
The fliady curtain from Aurora’s bed. Skakefpeare. 
CUR'TAIN-LECTURE, f A reproof given by a 
wife to her hufband in bed.—She ought to exert the au¬ 
thority of the curtain-le&ure, and, if fhe finds him of a re¬ 
bellious difpofition, to tame’him. Addifon. 
What endlefs brawls by wives are bred ! 
The curtain-ldlure makes a mournful bed. Drydcn. 
To CUR'TAIN, v. a. To inclofe or accommodate with 
curtains: 
Nature feems dead, and wicked dreams abufe 
The curtain'd fleep. Skakefpeare. 
CUR'T AL ,f. A fmall horfe docked.—Enters a dwarf, 
pod from heii, riding on a curtal. Ben Jonfon, 
I’d give bay curtal and his furniture, 
CURTA'NA,yi See Curteyn. 
My mouth no more were broken than thefe boys. Shakef. 
CUR'TATE DISTANCE, f. in aftronomy, the dif- 
tance of a planet’s place from the fun, reduced to the 
ecliptic ; or, the interval between the fun and that point 
where a perpendicular, let fall from the planet, meets 
the ecliptic. 
CURTA'TION, f. The interval between a planet’s 
diltance from the fun, and the curtate diftarice. From 
the foregoing article it is eafy to find the curtate di(- 
tance ; whence the manner cf conftructing tables of cur- 
tation is obvious ; the quantity of inclination, reduction, 
and curtation, of a planet, depending on the argument 
of latitude. Kepler, in his Rodolphine Tables, reduces 
the ta< les of theip all into one, under the title of Tabula 
Latitiidinaria. 
CUR'IELASSE, or Curtelax, or Curtax, f. 
See Cutlass. 
Vol. V. No. 289, 
C U R 
CUR'TESY, or Curtsy, f. See Courtesy. 
CURTEYN, \_Curtana , Lat.] The name of king Ed¬ 
ward the ConfefTor’s fvvotd ; which is the fis ft (word car¬ 
ried before the kings of England at their coronation : and 
it is fait! the point of it is bieken as an emblem of mercy. 
Mat. Paris. 
CU R'TIL AGE ,f [curtilagium, Lat. from the IT. cour, 
or court, and Sax. leagh, a place.] A cpurt-yaid, back- 
fide, or piece of ground lying near and belonging to a 
dv. elling-houfe. gEdw. I. c. 1. 35 Hen. VIII. c. 4. 39 
Eliz. c. 10. And though it is faid to be a yard or garden 
belonging to a houfe, it feems to differ from a garden, 
tor we find, Cum quodam gardino £3 curtilagio. 15 Edw. I. 
n. 34. 
CURTI'LES TER'Rdi, f. in law, Court Lands. 
It is recorded, that among our Saxon anceflors, that the 
Thanes or nobles who potfelled Bockland, or hereditary 
lands, divided them into inland and outland : tire inland 
was that which lay ntcfl convenient for the lord’s man- 
fion-houfe ; and therefore the lords kept that part in 
their own hands for the fupport of their families, and 
for hofpitality : afterwards, the Normans called thefe 
lands terras dominicales, the demains, demefnes, or lord’s 
lands ; the Germans termed them terras indominicatas, 
lands in the lord’s own ufe ; and the Feudifts, terras cur- 
tiles, lands appropriate to the court or houfe of the lord. 
Spclm. of Feuds. 
CUR'TIN, or Curtain, or Courtine, f. in forti¬ 
fication, that part of a wall or rampart that joins two 
baftions, or lying between the flank of one and that of 
another. The curtain is ufually bordered with a para¬ 
pet five feet high ; behind which the Soldiers (land to fire 
upon the covert-way, and into the moat. 
CURTl'SIA, f. [from William Curtis, teacher of bo¬ 
tany in London, author of Flora Londinenfis, &c.] The 
Hassagay-tree : in botany, a genus of the clais tetran- 
dria, order monogynia. The generic characters are— 
Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, four-parted; parts ovate, 
acute. Corolla : petals four, ovate, obtufe, feffile, longer 
than the calyx. Stamina i filaments four, inferted into 
the receptacle, fubulate, fhorter than the petals; an¬ 
thers ovate. Piftillum: germ fuperior, ovate; (tyle 
fubulate, the length of the (tamens ; ftigma four or five- 
cleft. Pericarp him : drupe fubglohular, fmooth. Seed: 
nut roundifh, honey, four or five-celled; kernels foli- 
tary, oblong.— EJfential CharaElcr. Calyx, four-parted ; 
petals, four; drupe, fuperior, roundifh, fucculent, with 
a four or five-celled nut. 
There is but onelpecies, called Curtifiafaginea,beech¬ 
leaved curtifia, or haflagay-tree. This is one of the 
largelt trees in the African woods, with very diminutive 
flowers. The Hottentots and Cadres make the Shafts of 
their javelins or alfagays from the wood of this tree. They 
always carry one or two of thefe with them, on theirjour- 
nies. They confift of an iron fpear hollowed out on each 
fide about fix inches long, with or without an iron (half, 
which is fometimes round and fmooth, and fometimes 
grooved. It is fattened with thongs of leather to a (len¬ 
der round (tick, five feet long, tapering towards the end, 
and made of this wood. With thefe lances, which they 
throw with great dexterity to the diltance of a hundred 
paces, the Hottentots andCaffres defend themfelves, and 
kill buffaloes and other wild animals. This tree is called 
in Dutch, wite-elfe, Jlinkhout, and ajfagayhout ; in Englilh, 
hajagay or ajfagay-tree, from its ule among the natives of 
the Cape of Good Hope. It was introduced here in 1775 
by Mr. Francis Maffon. 
CUR'TIUS (Marcus), a Roman celebrated for heroi- 
cal devotion to his country, of whofe afction the follow¬ 
ing account is given by Livy. “ In the year of Rome 
392, before Christ 362, the ground in the midft of the 
forum, either from an earthquake, or fome other caufe, 
opened, and left a vaSt chafm which could not be.filled 
up by the throwing in of earth. The oracle conlulted 
on the occafion, pronounced that the Roman Hate would 
6 I endure 
