CURTAIN LECTURE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Curtain lecture

... of spirit which gained him such universal popularity; for those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation; and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some respects be considered a tolerable blessing, and if so, Rip Van Winkle ...

— Legends That Every Child Should Know • Hamilton Wright Mabie

... turning herself so that her husband could see her more plainly in the white light from the arc lamp at the corner. There was the menace of a curtain lecture in her face. ...

— The Mermaid of Druid Lake and Other Stories • Charles Weathers Bump