curtail
verb (formal)- curtail something
to limit something or make it last for a shorter time 限制；缩短；减缩 Spending on books has been severely curtailed. 购书开支已被大大削减。 The lecture was curtailed by the fire alarm going off. 那次讲座被突然鸣响的火警中断了。
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- drastically
- seriously
- severely
- …
Word Originlate 15th cent.: from obsolete curtal ‘horse with a docked tail’, from French courtault, from court ‘short’, from Latin curtus. The change in the ending was due to association with tail and perhaps also with French tailler ‘to cut’.