ring down the curtain on



ring down the curtain on

Bring something to an end, as in We'd best get to that grand old hotel before they ring down the curtain on it. This idiom alludes to the old practice of signaling that a theater curtain be lowered at the ring of a bell. Similarly, ring up the curtain on refers to a bell rung to begin a performance and came to mean starting anything, as in Their contribution rang up the curtain on the fund drive. The figurative use of these terms dates from the early 1900s.
See also: curtain, down, on, ring

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Petur-Faroese
Savannahsə-VAN-əEnglish
Chinyelu-Western African, Igbo
Israhel-Biblical Latin
Kleopatros-Ancient Greek
Ness (2)NESEnglish