curtailment

/kərˈteɪlmənt/

Other forms: curtailments

A curtailment is an ending or restriction. The curtailment of your allowance means you'll have to get a job if you want to keep buying new video games.

The noun curtailment is a somewhat formal way to say "limitation." It comes from the Old French court, "short," and a root meaning "to cut." You can think of a curtailment as cutting something short, whether it's the curtailment of your bike riding once the temperature drops in the fall, or the curtailment of your driving privileges after you get into a fender-bender.

Definitions of curtailment

1. noun

   the temporal property of being cut short
   type of:

   shortness

   the property of being of short temporal extent
2. noun

   the reduction of expenditures in order to become financially stable
   synonyms: downsizing, retrenchment

   type of:

   economy, saving

   an act of economizing; reduction in cost
3. noun

   the act of withholding or withdrawing some book or writing from publication or circulation
   synonyms: suppression

   type of:

   restraint

   the act of controlling by restraining someone or something