Curtailing

cur;tail pronunciation: function: transitive verb etymology: by folk etymology from earlier curtal to dock an animal's tail, from curtal, noun, animal with a docked tail, from middle french courtault — more at curtaldate: 1580 : to make less by or as if by cutting off or away some part lt;curtail the power of the executive branchgt; lt;curtail inflationgt;synonyms see shorten— cur;tail;er noun