- short|en
- short|en «SHR tuhn», transitive verb.1. to make shorter; cut off: »
to shorten the working day. The new highway shortens the trip. She has had all her dresses shortened. Envy and wrath shorten the life (Ecclesiasticus 30:24).
2. to make seem shorter: »Thus were the hours of labour shortened…by shrewd remarks and bits of local gossip (Joseph Conrad).
3. to make rich, as with butter or lard; add shortening to: »She used butter to shorten her cakes.
5. (in the Bible) to reduce the reach or power of: »Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save (Isaiah 59:1).
6. to treat or pronounce (a vowel or syllable) as short.–v.i.1. to become shorter; dwindle in size: »The days shorten in November in this country.
2. (of odds or prices) to decrease.–short´en|er, noun.Synonym Study transitive verb. 1 Shorten, curtail, abbreviate mean to make shorter. Shorten is the general word meaning to reduce the length or extent of something: »The new highway shortens the trip.
Curtail, more formal, means to cut something short by taking away or cutting off a part, and suggests causing loss or incompletenes: »Bad news made us curtail our trip.
Abbreviate most commonly means to shorten the written form of a word or phrase by leaving out syllables or letters or by substitution, without impairing meaning: »Abbreviate “pound” to “lb.” after numerals.
Abbreviate may also be used more generally, closer in meaning to shorten than to curtail.
Useful english dictionary. 2012.
