different between curtain vs shield

English

Etymology

From Middle English curteyn, corteyn, cortyn, cortine, from Old French cortine, from Medieval Latin c?rt?na (“curtain”), from Latin cohors (“court, enclosure”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k??tn?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?tn?/, [?k??n?]
• Rhymes: -??(r)t?n
• Homophone: Kirton

Noun

curtain (plural curtains)

1. A piece of cloth covering a window, bed, etc. to offer privacy and keep out light.

   • Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.

2. A similar piece of cloth that separates the audience and the stage in a theater.
3. (theater, by extension) The beginning of a show; the moment the curtain rises.

   He took so long to shave his head that we arrived 45 minutes after curtain and were denied late entry.

4. (fortifications) The flat area of wall which connects two bastions or towers; the main area of a fortified wall.
   • , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.220:

     Captain Rense, beleagring the Citie of Errona for us, […] caused a forcible mine to be wrought under a great curtine of the walles […].

5. (euphemistic, also "final curtain", sometimes in the plural) Death.
   • 1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

     For life is quite absurd / And death's the final word / You must always face the curtain with a bow.

6. (architecture) That part of a wall of a building which is between two pavilions, towers, etc.
7. (obsolete, derogatory) A flag; an ensign.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

curtain (third-person singular simple present curtains, present participle curtaining, simple past and past participle curtained)

1. To cover (a window) with a curtain; to hang curtains.
   • 1985, Carol Shields, "Dolls, Dolls, Dolls, Dolls" in The Collected Stories, Random House Canada, 2004, p. 163,

     The window, softly curtained with dotted swiss, became the focus of my desperate hour-by-hour attention.

2. (figuratively) To hide, cover or separate as if by a curtain.
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene 2, [2]

     And, after conflict such as was supposed / The wandering prince and Dido once enjoy'd, / When with a happy storm they were surprised / And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave, / We may, each wreathed in the other's arms, / Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber;

   • 1840, Percy Bysshe Shelley, "A Defence of Poetry" [3]

     But poetry in a more restricted sense expresses those arrangements of language, and especially metrical language, which are created by that imperial faculty; whose throne is curtained within the invisible nature of man.

   • 1958, Ovid, The Metamorphoses, translated by Horace Gregory, New York: Viking, Book IV, Perseus, p. 115,

     He saw a rock that pierced the shifting waters / As they stilled, now curtained by the riding / Of the waves, and leaped to safety on it.

   • 2003, A. B. Yehoshua, The Liberated Bride (2001), translated by Hillel Halkin, Harcourt, Part 2, Chapter 17, p. 115,

     But bleakness still curtained the gray horizon.

Synonyms

• becurtain

Translations

See also

• blind
• drape
• curtain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• turacin

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i?ld/
• Rhymes: -i?ld

Etymology 1

From Middle English scheld, shelde, from Old English scield (“shield”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeldu, from Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“cut, split”). Cognate with West Frisian skyld, Dutch schild (“shield”), German Schild (“shield”), Danish skjold (“shield”), Icelandic skjöldur (“shield”) and Faroese skjøldur (“shield”)

Compare Latin sc?tum (“shield”), Irish sciath (“shield”), Latgalian šk?da (“shield”), Lithuanian skydas (“shield”), Russian ??? (š?it, “shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, protect”), *skey- (“to cut, split”).

Noun

shield (plural shields)

1. Anything that protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection.
   1. A broad piece of defensive armor, held in hand, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body.
   2. (figuratively) One who protects or defends.
   3. (lichenology) In lichens, a hardened cup or disk surrounded by a rim and containing the fructification, or asci.
   4. (mining, tunnelling) A framework used to protect workmen in making an adit under ground, and capable of being pushed along as excavation progresses.
   5. (science fiction) A field of energy that protects or defends.
2. A shape like that of a shield; usually, an inverted triangle with sides that curve inward to form a pointed bottom, commonly used for police identifications and company logos.
   1. (heraldry) The escutcheon or field on which are placed the bearings in coats of arms.
   2. (Scotland, euphemistic, obsolete) A toilet seat.
   3. A spot resembling, or having the form of a shield.
   4. (obsolete) A coin, the old French crown, or écu, having on one side the figure of a shield.
   5. (transport) A sign or symbol, usually containing numbers and sometimes letters, identifying a highway route.
   6. (colloquial, law enforcement) A police badge.
3. (geology) A large expanse of exposed stable Precambrian rock.
   1. (geology) A wide and relatively low-profiled volcano, usually composed entirely of lava flows.
4. (figuratively, Scotland, euphemistic, obsolete) A place with a toilet seat: an outhouse; a lavatory.
5. (automotive, British) Parts at the front and back of a vehicle which are meant to absorb the impact of a collision

Synonyms

• (place with a toilet seat): See Thesaurus:bathroom

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• bitch shield
• rape shield
• shield medick (Medicago scutellata)
• shield wall

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English shelden, from Old English scildan.

Verb

shield (third-person singular simple present shields, present participle shielding, simple past and past participle shielded)

1. To protect, to defend.
2. (Britain, intransitive) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

3. (electricity) to protect from the influence of

Derived terms

• beshield

Translations

Anagrams

• Diehls, delish, hidels, hidles, hields, ledish, sheild