short

[short]

Short describes something that is not as long as usual. If your childhood bed is too short for you, your feet will dangle over the edge, and if a school day is short, you'll get out early.

...

Not long; having brief length or linear extension; as, a short distance; a short piece of timber; a short flight.

Noun
the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed between 2nd and 3rd base

Noun
the location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed

Noun
accidental contact between two points in an electric circuit that have a potential difference

Verb
create a short-circuit in

Verb
cheat someone by not returning him enough money

...

Adjective S.
most direct; "took the shortest and most direct route to town"

Adjective S.
quickly aroused to anger; "a hotheaded commander"

Adjective
primarily spatial sense; having little length or lacking in length; "short skirts"; "short hair"; "the board was a foot short"; "a short toss"

Adjective
primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration; "a short life"; "a short flight"; "a short holiday"; "a short story"; "only a few short months"

Adjective
of speech sounds (especially vowels) of relatively short duration (as e.g. the English vowel sounds in `pat'', `pet'', `pit'', `pot'', putt'')

Adjective
not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices; "a short sale"; "short in cotton"

Adjective S.
unwilling to endure; "she was short with the slower students"

Adjective S.
lacking foresight or scope; "a short view of the problem"; "shortsighted policies"; "shortsighted critics derided the plan"; "myopic thinking"

Adjective S.
(of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range; "a short memory"

Adjective S.
used of syllables that are unaccented or of relatively brief duration

Adjective S.
not sufficient to meet a need; "an inadequate income"; "a poor salary"; "money is short"; "on short rations"; "food is in short supply"; "short on experience"

Adjective S.
less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so; "a light pound"; "a scant cup of sugar"; "regularly gives short weight"

Adjective
low in stature; not tall; "his was short and stocky"; "short in stature"; "a short smokestack"

Adjective S.
containing a large amount of shortening; therefore tender and easy to crumble or break into flakes; "shortbread is a short crumbly cookie"; "a short flaky pie crust"

Adverb
quickly and without warning; "he stopped suddenly"

Adverb
in a curt, abrupt and discourteous manner; "he told me curtly to get on with it"; "he talked short with everyone"; "he said shortly that he didn''t like it"

Adverb
tightly; "she caught him up short on his lapel"

Adverb
at a disadvantage; "I was caught short"

Adverb
so as to interrupt; "She took him up short before he could continue"

Adverb
at some point or distance before a goal is reached; "he fell short of our expectations"

Adverb
clean across; "the car''s axle snapped short"

Adverb
without possessing something at the time it is contractually sold; "he made his fortune by selling short just before the crash"


superl.
Not long; having brief length or linear extension; as, a short distance; a short piece of timber; a short flight.

superl.
Not extended in time; having very limited duration; not protracted; as, short breath.

superl.
Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty; as, a short supply of provisions, or of water.

superl.
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.

superl.
Deficient; defective; imperfect; not coming up, as to a measure or standard; as, an account which is short of the trith.

superl.
Not distant in time; near at hand.

superl.
Limited in intellectual power or grasp; not comprehensive; narrow; not tenacious, as memory.

superl.
Less important, efficaceous, or powerful; not equal or equivalent; less (than); -- with of.

superl.
Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant; as, he gave a short answer to the question.

superl.
Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth; crisp; as, short pastry.

superl.
Brittle.

superl.
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.

adv.
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.

n.
A summary account.

n.
The part of milled grain sifted out which is next finer than the bran.

n.
Short, inferior hemp.

n.
Breeches; shortclothes.

n.
A short sound, syllable, or vowel.

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

v. t.
To shorten.

v. i.
To fail; to decrease.


Short

Short , 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.
The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it.
2. Not extended in time; having very limited duration; not protracted; as, short breath.
The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
To short absense I could yield.
3. Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty; as, a short supply of provisions, or of water. 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.
We shall be short in our provision.
5. Deficient; defective; imperfect; not coming up, as to a measure or standard; as, an account which is short of the trith. 6. Not distant in time; near at hand.
Marinell was sore offended That his departure thence should be so short.
He commanded those who were appointed to attend him to be ready by a short day.
7. Limited in intellectual power or grasp; not comprehensive; narrow; not tenacious, as memory.
Their own short understandings reach No farther than the present.
8. Less important, efficaceous, or powerful; not equal or equivalent; less (than); -- with of.
Hardly anything short of an invasion could rouse them again to war.
9. Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant; as, he gave a short answer to the question. 10. (Cookery) Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth; crisp; as, short pastry. 11. (Metal) Brittle. &hand; Metals that are brittle when hot are called 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. 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. &hand; 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. 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. &hand; 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. 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.

Short

Short, n. 1. A summary account.
The short and the long is, our play is preferred.
2. pl. The part of milled grain sifted out which is next finer than the bran.
The first remove above bran is shorts.
3. pl. Short, inferior hemp. 4. pl. Breeches; shortclothes. [Slang] Dickens. 5. (Phonetics) A short sound, syllable, or vowel.
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.
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.

Short

Short , adv. In a short manner; briefly; limitedly; abruptly; quickly; as, to stop short in one's course; to turn short.
He was taken up very short, and adjudged corrigible for such presumptuous language.
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.

Short

Short, v. t. [AS. sceortian.] To shorten. [Obs.]

Short

Short, v. i. To fail; to decrease. [Obs.]

Not long; having brief length or linear extension; as, a short distance; a short piece of timber; a short flight.

A summary account.

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

To shorten.

To fail; to decrease.

...

Usage Examples

Anger is a short madness.

A positive attitude is not going to save you. What it's going to do is, everyday, between now and the day you die, whether that's a short time from now or a long time from now, that every day, you're going to actually live.

Beauty, sweet love, is like the morning dew, Whose short refresh upon tender green, Cheers for a time, but till the sun doth show And straight is gone, as it had never been.

All my freakouts have been pretty private and directed at family pets and/or people I have been dating for too short a time to freak out at in that way.

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

As the President reviewed the state of the union and unveiled his second-term agenda, he fell short of adequately explaining how he intends to set America back on the course of fiscal responsibility and secure the fiscal health of the nation.

After I had gone through this matter with the President I told him of my condition of health and that my doctors felt that I must take a complete rest and that I thought that that meant leaving the Department finally in a short time.

A fan sent me a letter and a $10 bill. It's a short letter - all she said was, 'Hey, since it's harder for you to go out these days without getting photographed, here $10 for a pizza.' I was like, 'Aww, she sent me money for a pizza so I could eat at home!'

Misspelled Form

short, ashort, wshort, eshort, dshort, xshort, zshort, ahort, whort, ehort, dhort, xhort, zhort, sahort, swhort, sehort, sdhort, sxhort, szhort, sghort, syhort, suhort, sjhort, snhort, sgort, syort, suort, sjort, snort, shgort, shyort, shuort, shjort, shnort, shiort, sh9ort, sh0ort, shport, shlort, shirt, sh9rt, sh0rt, shprt, shlrt, shoirt, sho9rt, sho0rt, shoprt, sholrt, shoert, sho4rt, sho5rt, shotrt, shofrt, shoet, sho4t, sho5t, shott, shoft, shoret, shor4t, shor5t, shortt, shorft, shorrt, shor5t, shor6t, shoryt, shorgt, shorr, shor5, shor6, shory, shorg, shortr, short5, short6, shorty, shortg.

Other Usage Examples

Almost every college playwright or sketch or improv comedian was sort of aware of Christopher Durang - even kids in high school. His short plays were so accessible to younger people and I think that was inspirational to me.

Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.

A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.

As an actor, there is room for a certain amount of creativity, but you're always ultimately going to be saying somebody else's words. I don't think I'd have the stamina, skill or ability to write a novel, but I'd love to write short stories and poetry, because those are my two passions.

As a kid I was short and only weighed 95 pounds. And though I was active in a lot of Sports and got along with most of the guys, I think I used comedy as a defense mechanism. You know making someone laugh is a much better way to solve a problem than by using your fists.

A sign now of success with a certain audience when you do a short comedy piece, anywhere, is that it gets on YouTube and gets around. It's always something you're thinking about unconsciously.

A short saying often contains much wisdom.

A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.

Comments


Browse Dictionary