different between curtail vs impair

English

Etymology

Alteration of curtal, from Old French courtault (“which has been shortened”), itself from court (“short”) (from Latin curtus) + -ault

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k???te?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /k??te?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Verb

curtail (third-person singular simple present curtails, present participle curtailing, simple past and past participle curtailed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To cut short the tail of an animal

   Curtailing horses procured long horse-hair.

2. (transitive) To shorten or abridge the duration of something; to truncate.

   When the audience grew restless, the speaker curtailed her speech.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To limit or restrict, keep in check.
   • 2018, "Israeli gov't is trying to defund +972 Magazine, report says", +972 Magazine:

Synonyms

• (animal's tail): crop, dock
• (shorten): abbreviate, shorten; See also Thesaurus:shorten
• (limit): behedge, control, limit, restrain; See also Thesaurus:curb

Derived terms

• curtailer
• curtailment

Related terms

• curt
• curtal

Translations

Noun

curtail (plural curtails)

1. (architecture) A scroll termination, as of a step, etc.

Anagrams

• trucial, urtical

English

Alternative forms

• empair (obsolete, rare)

Etymology

From Middle English impairen, empeiren, from Old French empeirier, variant of empirier (“to worsen”), from Vulgar Latin *imp?i?r?, from im- + Late Latin p?i?r? (“to make worse”), from peior (“worse”), comparative of malus (“bad”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?p??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Verb

impair (third-person singular simple present impairs, present participle impairing, simple past and past participle impaired)

1. (transitive) To weaken; to affect negatively; to have a diminishing effect on.
2. (intransitive, archaic) To grow worse; to deteriorate.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

Synonyms

• blunt, diminish, hurt, lessen, mar, reduce, weaken, worsen

Derived terms

• impairment

Translations

Adjective

impair (comparative more impair, superlative most impair)

1. (obsolete) Not fit or appropriate; unsuitable.

Further reading

• impair in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• impair in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• impair at OneLook Dictionary Search

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin imp?r, equivalent to im- +? pair.

Adjective

impair (feminine singular impaire, masculine plural impairs, feminine plural impaires)

1. odd (of a number)

   Antonym: pair

Derived terms

• fonction impaire
• nombre impair

References

• “impair” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Antonyms

• pair

Anagrams

• primai