adjective
- shortened or reduced in length or duration
Usage: formal or technical; astronomy: relating to a celestial body's apparent distance from Earth
verb
- to shorten or reduce in length or extent
Usage: archaic or formal
Examples
- The curtate distance in astronomy is measured from the center of Earth to the projection of a celestial body on the ecliptic plane.
- Due to budget constraints, the project timeline was curtate by several weeks.
- The curtate version of the novel omits several subplots from the original.
- They decided to curtate their vacation to just one week instead of two.
- The curtate form of the equation simplifies the calculation significantly.