curtail : Idioms & Phrases

Cur"tail dog`

Definitions

1. A dog with a docked tail; formerly, the dog of a person not qualified to course, which, by the forest laws, must have its tail cut short, partly as a mark, and partly from a notion that the tail is necessary to a dog in running; hence, a dog not fit for sporting.

   Hope is a curtail dog in some affairs. Shak.

Webster 1913