CURTAIN Copy link • CURTAIN 1. s. velum (general term for any piece of cloth or stuff, that is hung or spread before anything; e.g., bed-curtain, curtain before a door): plagula (curtain spread over a bed, a sedan-chair, etc.): aulaeum (ἡ αὐλαία, a splendidly wrought curtain, especially to draw before or to spread over a bed, e.g., lectus aulaeis obductus [after Curt. 8, 5, 21] then = curtain before the stage in the theatre, which was let down at the beginning of the piece [mittitur, premitur aulaeum], and drawn up at the end of it [tollitur aulaeum]; compare Schmid, Hor., Ep., 2, 1, 189): to draw the curtains round anything, velis aliquid obtendere: to draw or pull down the curtains, vela obducere: to open or draw the curtains, vela reducere. Term in fortification, murus intergerinus. A curtain lecture, *uxoria admonitio or objurgatio: *uxoris nocturna objurgatio: to read a husband a curtain-lecture, maritum graviter monere. 2. v. Vid. CURTAIN, subst.