Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CUR'TAIN, n. [kur'tin; It. cortina; Low L. Sp. and Port. id.; D. gordyn; Fr. courtine, in fortification. This word may be from the root of court, and from the sense of separating. I think it is not a contraction of the It. copertina.]

1. A cloth hanging round a bed, or at a window, which may be contracted, spread, or drawn aside at pleasure; intended for ornament, or for use. Also, the hangings about the ark, among the Israelites.
2. A cloth-hanging used in theaters, to conceal the stage from the spectators. This is raised or let down by cords. Hence the phrases, to drop the curtain, to close the scene, to end; to raise the curtain, or the curtain will rise, to denote the opening of the play. And to draw the curtain, is to close it, to shut out the light, or to conceal an object; or to open it and disclose the object. Behind the curtain, in concealment, in secret.
3. In fortification, that part of the rampart which is between the flanks of two bastions, bordered with a parapet five feet high, behind which the soldiers stand to fire on the covered way, and into the moat. – Encyc.
4. In Scripture, tents; dwellings. – Hab. iii. 7.