curtained

1. 1
   adjective

   Covered or partitioned off with one or more curtains.

   A curtained doorway separated the kitchen from the dining area.

   Each curtained cubicle in the clinic held a single examination table.

   Similardraped

   Oppositeuncurtained, curtainless

   Note

   A word that sets a scene and has long done so in fiction: the sisters' curtained bed in Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market (1862), the dark curtained room in Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), a curtained wall in C. S. Lewis. It does not take degrees, since a room is curtained or it is not. Its opposites are uncurtained and the plainer curtainless.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of curtain.

   The stagehands curtained the alcove to hide the props.

   Volunteers curtained the hall into smaller voting booths.

   Note

   One -ed spelling does three jobs: the simple past (they curtained the alcove), the perfect (have curtained) and the passive (was curtained). The verb behind it is transitive and works literally or figuratively, so a window can be curtained and so can a view hidden by mist. Placed before a noun, the participle settles into the plain adjective, as in a curtained bed.

3. 3
   adjectivein compounds

   Hung or fitted with curtains of a specified type.

   The room was curtained throughout in heavy brocade that dimmed the chandeliers.

   Tall French doors, curtained in sheer linen, opened onto the terrace.

   Similardraped, hung

   Note

   The compound-forming use: a material, color or style is joined by a hyphen to the front, as in Edith Wharton's chintz-curtained bedroom, Oscar Wilde's orange-curtained pavilion and Philip Pullman's bead-curtained doors. The last shows the curtain need not be cloth at all. On its own, curtained followed by in plus the material does the same work without the hyphen.

4. 4
   adjectivefiguratively

   Hidden or kept apart as though by a curtain.

   Like a stage still hidden behind its drop before the show begins.

   The summit remained curtained in cloud all afternoon.

   His real motives stayed curtained behind a careful, polite smile.

   Similarshrouded

   Oppositevisible, exposed

   Note

   The figurative use is old enough for Macbeth, where night brings dreams that abuse "the curtain'd sleep" (c. 1606), the apostrophe marking the dropped vowel of the period's spelling. The image is of something closed off from sight, and its nearest synonym, shrouded, pushes that toward a darker, more complete concealment.

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