ring up the curtain

present singular third person rings up the curtain · participle present ringing up the curtain · past rang up the curtain · participle past rung up the curtain

1. To start something.

   I caught her in my arms; she kissed me, pushed me gently away, and added: “Ring up the curtain, uncle. Little Moccasin is ready"

   1879, The Peterson magazine - Volumes 75-76, page 444

   3 more examples

   She remembered perfectly the first sign he had given of it — it had been like the bell that was to ring up the curtain upon the real drama of their life.

   1976, Waldemar Gutwinski, Cohesion in Literary Texts: A study of some grammatical and lexical features of English discourse, →ISBN

   After Congress had waited as long as it was willing to wait for Durant to ring up the curtain, it was lucky when all seemed lost to get the blessing, the services, and a great deal of the personal capital of one of the most wrongly judged men in the history of American railroad leadership: Oakes Ames.

   1992, Albro Martin, Railroads Triumphant, →ISBN

   He was one of those who hold that revolutions are not made with rose-water; and with strange prescience he looked to the Russian peasant's hatred of his oppressors to ring up the curtain on a world-drama that should mean the destruction of civilisation.

   2014, Ernest Newman, The Life of Richard Wagner, →ISBN, page 49

   Antonyms: ring down the curtain