*short*

v. t. 1. (Fine Art) To represent on a plane surface, as if extended in a direction toward the spectator or nearly so; to shorten by drawing in perspective. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: To represent pictorially to the imagination. [ 1913 Webster ]

Songs, and deeds, and lives that lie
Foreshortened in the tract of time. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Fine Arts) Representation in a foreshortened mode or way. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. Cold-short. ] (Metal.) Brittle when heated, esp. beyond a red heat; as, hot-short iron. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. pl. [ from a Tradename. ] A type of men's underpants without legs, fitting tightly and held by an elastic waistband; also called briefs. Originally a tradename, the term has become common for that type of underpants. [ PJC ]

a. (Metal.) Hot-short; brittle when red-hot; -- said of certain kinds of iron. -- Red"-short`ness, n. [1913 Webster]

a. [ Compar. Shorter superl. Shortest. ] [ OE. short, schort, AS. scort, sceort; akin to OHG. scurz, Icel. skorta to be short of, to lack, and perhaps to E. shear, v. t. Cf. Shirt. ] 1. Not long; having brief length or linear extension; as, a short distance; a short piece of timber; a short flight. [ 1913 Webster ]

The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it. Isa. xxviii. 20. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Not extended in time; having very limited duration; not protracted; as, short breath. [ 1913 Webster ]

The life so short, the craft so long to learn. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

To short absense I could yield. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty; as, a short supply of provisions, or of water. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Insufficiently provided; inadequately supplied; scantily furnished; lacking; not coming up to a resonable, or the ordinary, standard; -- usually with of; as, to be short of money. [ 1913 Webster ]

We shall be short in our provision. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Deficient; defective; imperfect; not coming up, as to a measure or standard; as, an account which is short of the trith. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Not distant in time; near at hand. [ 1913 Webster ]

Marinell was sore offended
That his departure thence should be so short. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

He commanded those who were appointed to attend him to be ready by a short day. Clarendon. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. Limited in intellectual power or grasp; not comprehensive; narrow; not tenacious, as memory. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their own short understandings reach
No farther than the present. Rowe. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. Less important, efficaceous, or powerful; not equal or equivalent; less (than); -- with of. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hardly anything short of an invasion could rouse them again to war. Landor. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant; as, he gave a short answer to the question. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. (Cookery) Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth; crisp; as, short pastry. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. (Metal) Brittle. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Metals that are brittle when hot are called &unr_;ot-short; as, cast iron may be hot-short, owing to the presence of sulphur. Those that are brittle when cold are called cold-short; as, cast iron may be cold-short, on account of the presence of phosphorus. [ 1913 Webster ]

12. (Stock Exchange) Engaging or engaged to deliver what is not possessed; as, short contracts; to be short of stock. See The shorts, under Short, n., and To sell short, under Short, adv. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In mercantile transactions, a note or bill is sometimes made payable at short sight, that is, in a little time after being presented to the payer. [ 1913 Webster ]

13. (Phon.) Not prolonged, or relatively less prolonged, in utterance; -- opposed to long, and applied to vowels or to syllables. In English, the long and short of the same letter are not, in most cases, the long and short of the same sound; thus, the i in ill is the short sound, not of i in isle, but of ee in eel, and the e in pet is the short sound of a in pate, etc. See Quantity, and Guide to Pronunciation, §§22, 30. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Short is much used with participles to form numerous self-explaining compounds; as, short-armed, short-billed, short-fingered, short-haired, short-necked, short-sleeved, short-tailed, short-winged, short-wooled, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

At short notice, in a brief time; promptly. --
Short rib (Anat.), one of the false ribs. --
Short suit (Whist), any suit having only three cards, or less than three. R. A. Proctor. --
To come short,
To cut short,
To fall short, etc. See under Come, Cut, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A summary account. [ 1913 Webster ]

The short and the long is, our play is preferred. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. pl. The part of milled grain sifted out which is next finer than the bran. [ 1913 Webster ]

The first remove above bran is shorts. Halliwell. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. pl. Short, inferior hemp. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. pl. Breeches; shortclothes. [ Slang ] Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Phonetics) A short sound, syllable, or vowel. [ 1913 Webster ]

If we compare the nearest conventional shorts and longs in English, as in “bit” and “beat, ” “not” and “naught, ” we find that the short vowels are generally wide, the long narrow, besides being generally diphthongic as well. Hence, originally short vowels can be lengthened and yet kept quite distinct from the original longs. H. Sweet. [ 1913 Webster ]

In short, in few words; in brief; briefly. --
The long and the short, the whole; a brief summing up. --
The shorts (Stock Exchange), those who are unsupplied with stocks which they contracted to deliver. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a short manner; briefly; limitedly; abruptly; quickly; as, to stop short in one's course; to turn short. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was taken up very short, and adjudged corrigible for such presumptuous language. Howell. [ 1913 Webster ]

To sell short (Stock Exchange), to sell, for future delivery, what the party selling does not own, but hopes to buy at a lower rate. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ AS. sceortian. ] To shorten. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To fail; to decrease. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Amount or extent of deficiency, as determined by some requirement or standard; as, a shortage in money accounts. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Having short-breath, or quick respiration. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Having short life. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An unsweetened breakfast cake shortened with butter or lard, rolled thin, and baked. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Elec.) A circuit formed or closed by a conductor of relatively low resistance because shorter or of relatively great conductivity. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Short-circuited; p. pr. & vb. n. Short-circuiting. ] (Elec.) To join, as the electrodes of a battery or dynamo or any two points of a circuit, by a conductor of low resistance. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Coverings for the legs of men or boys, consisting of trousers which reach only to the knees, -- worn with long stockings. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of falling, or coming short; as: (a) The failure of a crop, or the like. (b) Neglect of, or failure in, performance of duty. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having little time to run from the date. “Thy short-dated life.” Sandys. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Shortened; p. pr. & vb. n. Shortening. ] [ See Short, a. ] 1. To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To make deficient (as to); to deprive; -- with of. [ 1913 Webster ]

Spoiled of his nose, and shortened of his ears. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, pot liquor, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

To shorten a rope (Naut.), to take in the slack of it. --
To shorten sail (Naut.), to reduce sail by taking it in. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To become short or shorter; as, the day shortens in northern latitudes from June to December; a metallic rod shortens by cold. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, shortens. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of making or becoming short or shorter. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Cookery) That which renders pastry short or friable, as butter, lard, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A compendious and rapid method or writing by substituting characters, abbreviations, or symbols, for letters, words, etc.; short writing; stenography. See Illust. under Phonography. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Short of, or lacking the regular number of, servants or helpers. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A sucking whale less than one year old; -- so called by sailors. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. One of a breed of large, heavy domestic cattle having short horns. The breed was developed in England. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having short intervals between the joints; -- said of a plant or an animal, especially of a horse whose pastern is too short. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Not living or lasting long; being of short continuance; as, a short-lived race of beings; short-lived pleasure; short-lived passion. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. [ AS. sceortlice. ] 1. In a short or brief time or manner; soon; quickly. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

I shall grow jealous of you shortly. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The armies came shortly in view of each other. Clarendon. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. In few words; briefly; abruptly; curtly; as, to express ideas more shortly in verse than in prose. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality or state of being short; want of reach or extension; brevity; deficiency; as, the shortness of a journey; the shortness of the days in winter; the shortness of an essay; the shortness of the memory; a shortness of provisions; shortness of breath. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Not able to see far; nearsighted; myopic. See Myopic, and Myopia. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: Not able to look far into futurity; unable to understand things deep; of limited intellect. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Having little regard for the future; heedless. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Short"sight`ed*ly, adv. -- Short"sight`ed*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cunning is a kind of shortsightedness. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Speaking in a quick or short manner; hence, gruff; curt. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Baseball) The player stationed in the field bewtween the second and third bases. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having a short waist. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Affected with shortness of breath; having a quick, difficult respiration, as dyspnoic and asthmatic persons. May. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) Any one of several species of small wrenlike Asiatic birds having short wings and a short tail. They belong to Brachypterix, Callene, and allied genera. [ 1913 Webster ]