Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Curtail dog
Cur′tail dogˊ
(dŏgˊ; 115)
. A dog with a docked tail; formerly, the dog of a person not qualified to course, which, by the forest laws, must have its tail cut short, partly as a mark, and partly from a notion that the tail is necessary to a dog in running; hence, a dog not fit for sporting.
Hope is a
curtail dog
in some affairs. Shakespeare