The curtate distance, in astronomy, is the distance of a planet from the sun to that point, where a perpendicular let fall from the planet meets with the ecliptic. Or the interval between the sun or earth, and that point where a perpendicular, let fall from the planet, meets the ecliptic.

Shortened or reduced; -- said of the distance of a planet from the sun or earth, as measured in the plane of the ecliptic, or the distance from the sun or earth to that point where a perpendicular, let fall from the planet upon the plane of the ecliptic, meets the ecliptic.