Curtain: Cloth at a Window, and the Moment a Play Ends
A curtain is a hanging cloth covering a window or a stage. Theatre gave English several phrases from it, including curtain call and the final curtain.
A curtain hangs to conceal or reveal. The theatre made the word into a unit of time as well as an object: the curtain going up marks a beginning, and the final curtain has meant death in English for well over a century.
- Cloth hanging at a window. *Draw the curtains.*
- A stage screen. *The curtain rose at eight.*
- A barrier (figurative). *The Iron Curtain.*
- The end (informal). *That is curtains for the project.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | curtain | Heavy curtains. |
| US equivalent | drapes | Living-room drapes. |
| Compound | curtain call | Three curtain calls. |
| Compound | curtain raiser | A curtain raiser to the main event. |
| Related | blind | A roller blind. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Close the curtains before you switch on the light.Draw and close are both used.
- The cast took three curtain calls.Returning to acknowledge applause.
- If they find out, it is curtains for us.Informal — the end, and always plural here.
Curtain phrases
- Curtain call — the cast's return to take applause
- Curtain raiser — a short piece before the main event
- Bring down the curtain — end something
- The Iron Curtain — Churchill's 1946 phrase for the divide across Europe
- Behind the curtain — hidden from the audience, and from scrutiny
From Old French *cortine*, from Late Latin *cortina*, which translated a Greek word for a hanging in scripture. The theatrical uses are all much later, and belong to the age of the proscenium stage.
Curtains or drapes?
Curtains is standard in British English for all of them. American English often reserves drapes for heavier lined ones.
Where does the Iron Curtain come from?
From a fire-safety curtain in theatres, made of iron to seal the stage from the audience. Churchill used it in a 1946 speech and the phrase stuck.