vbl. sb. Also 6–7 curtalling, 7 curtling. [-ING1.] The action of the verb CURTAIL; shortening, abridging.
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretary, I. (1625), 3. When … with too much curtalling our arguments … wee abbreviate … our Epistles.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Derrabadura, curtalling, caudæ truncatio.
1610. Markham, Masterp., II. clix. 468. Now for the manner of curtalling of horses, it is in this sort.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. i. 315. The curtling of Jerusalem into Solyma.
c. 1720. W. Gibson, Farrier’s Guide, II. lviii. (1738), 217.
1737. Swift, Letter, 23 July. Against the corruption of English … with abominable curtailings and quaint modernisms.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, Pref. I profited by his judgment and experience in the curtailing of it.
