Word.ws English Dictionary

curtains

UK/ˈkɜː(ɹ).tənz/

curtains is the plural of curtain.

curtains is the third-person singular simple present indicative of curtain.

Noun

curtains pl (plural only)

  1. (figuratively, plural, plural-only) An end or death.
    • It's curtains for you!
    • He called curtains on his double decade cricket career on Tuesday.
  2. (colloquial, plural, plural-only) A ring of clear liquid, forming into drops, near the top of a glass of fortified wine; the result of differential evaporation of alcohol and subsequent changes in surface tension; an example of the Marangoni effect.
  3. (US, plural, plural-only, slang, uncommon) The foreskin.
  4. (US, plural, plural-only, slang, uncommon) The labia.
  5. (plural, plural-only) Synonym of curtain (“a hairstyle”)
    Synonyms:
    curtain

Meaning of curtain

Noun

curtain (plural curtains)

  1. (household) A piece of cloth covering a window, bed, etc. to offer privacy and keep out light.
    • He drew the curtains at 11:00pm before falling asleep.
  2. A similar piece of cloth that separates the audience and the stage in a theater.
    • “H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what[…]will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday[…]that two boys, playing in the little spinney just...1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London...
  3. (broadly) 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. The flat area of wall which connects two bastions or towers; the main area of a fortified wall.
    • Captain Rense, beleagring the Citie of Errona for us, […] caused a forcible mine to be wrought under a great curtine of the walles […]., Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.220
  5. (euphemistic, in plural, sometimes) Death, final curtain.
    • For life is quite absurd / And death's the final word / You must always face the curtain with a bow.1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
  6. That part of a wall of a building which is between two pavilions, towers, etc.

See all 11 meanings of curtain

Synonyms of curtains

Phrases with curtains

15 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about curtains

What does curtains mean?
Curtains means an end or death.
What is curtains the plural of?
Curtains is the plural of curtain.
What part of speech is curtains?
Curtains is a noun.
How do you pronounce curtains?
Curtains is pronounced /ˈkɜː(ɹ).tənz/ (UK).

Words near curtains in the dictionary

  1. curtaining off
  2. curtainings
  3. curtainless
  4. curtainlessness
  5. curtainlike
  6. curtains
  7. curtains off
  8. curtainsider
  9. curtainsiders
  10. curtainwall
  11. curtainwalls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: curtains (page history and authors); curtain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-curtains.ogg.

Cite this entry: “curtains.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/curtains. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.