curtain lecture love

curtain lecture

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A private reprimand given to a husband by his wife.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A private admonition or chiding; a lecture or scolding, such as might be given behind the curtains or in bed by a wife to her husband.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a private lecture to a husband by his wife

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[So called because it was originally given in a curtained bed.]

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Examples

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Comments

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  • "Impatient for her critique, he opens and closes the bed curtains, a scene that's a nice play on the eighteenth-century phrase 'curtain lecture,' a shrewish version of what we mean by 'pillow talk')."

    --Jill Lepore, "The Divider," New Yorker, March 17, 2008, p. 90

    May 6, 2008

  • A wife’s private reprimand to her husband. (from WordCraft)

    May 20, 2008