n. A corruption of curtal. Compare curtail, v.To cut short; cut off the end or a part of; dock; diminish in extent or quantity: as, to curtail words.To deprive by excision or removal; abate by deprivation or negation: as, to curtail one of part of his allowance, or of his proper title.n. In architecture, a member shaped like a volute or scroll, especially in stair-building, as in the lower termination of a hand-rail or the projection of the lowest step of a flight. See curtail-step.