SHORT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Short

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/ʃɔrt/ Listen

Short

adjective

(compar. shorter; superl. shortest)

1.

Primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration. "A short flight" , "A short holiday" , "A short story" , "Only a few short months"

2.

(primarily spatial sense) having little length or lacking in length. "Short hair" , "The board was a foot short" , "A short toss"

3.

Low in stature; not tall. Synonym: little. "Short in stature" , "A short smokestack" , "A little man"

4.

Not sufficient to meet a need. Synonyms: inadequate, poor. "A poor salary" , "Money is short" , "On short rations" , "Food is in short supply" , "Short on experience"

5.

(of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range. Synonyms: forgetful, unretentive.

6.

Not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices. "Short in cotton"

7.

Of speech sounds or syllables of relatively short duration.

8.

Less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so. Synonyms: light, scant. "A scant cup of sugar" , "Regularly gives short weight"

9.

Lacking foresight or scope. Synonyms: myopic, shortsighted, unforesightful. "Shortsighted policies" , "Shortsighted critics derided the plan" , "Myopic thinking"

10.

Tending to crumble or break into flakes due to a large amount of shortening. "A short flaky pie crust"

11.

Marked by rude or peremptory shortness. Synonyms: brusk, brusque, curt. "A curt reply" , "The salesgirl was very short with him"

adverb

1.

Quickly and without warning. Synonyms: abruptly, dead, suddenly.

2.

Without possessing something at the time it is contractually sold.

3.

Clean across.

4.

At some point or distance before a goal is reached.

5.

So as to interrupt.

6.

At a disadvantage. Synonym: unawares.

7.

In a curt, abrupt and discourteous manner. Synonyms: curtly, shortly. "He talked short with everyone" , "He said shortly that he didn't like it"

noun

1.

The location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed.

2.

Accidental contact between two points in an electric circuit that have a potential difference. Synonym: short circuit.

3.

The fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed between second and third base. Synonym: shortstop.

verb

1.

Cheat someone by not returning him enough money. Synonym: short-change.

2.

Create a short circuit in. Synonym: short-circuit.

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Short" Quotes from Famous Books

... He stopped short and his expression set her bosom to heaving. But her gaze was steady upon his. "Why did you tell me!" he cried. "Oh, it isn't so—it can't be. You ...

— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips

... amusement. So far from preventing him from noticing the other women in the harem, I would recommend them, and often have them in my apartments when he would visit me, and wish to be alone. I generally contrived to manage a little quarrel about once a month, as it renewed his passion. In short, the sultan became, as I intended, so infatuated, that he was my slave, and at the same time I felt an ardent attachment to him. My power was well known. The presents which I received from those who required my good offices were innumerable, and I never retained them, but sent ...

— The Pacha of Many Tales • Frederick Marryat

... affection for me, as did the duc d'Aiguillon, to whom I daily attached myself. He carefully kept from me all that could give me pain, and took a thousand precautions that no unpleasant reports should reach me. If we passed a short time without meeting he wrote to me, and I confess I was delighted with a correspondence which formed my own style. Mademoiselle Chon, my sister-in-law, and I also wrote to each other, and that from one room to another. I remember ...

— "Written by Herself" • Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon

... as a filter for actual experiences. A man must have a rich and varied experience of men and women before he can use books to advantage. Life is varied, men and women many, while the individual life is short; wise men read books, therefore, to enrich their experience, not merely as the pedant does, to garner facts. "J'etudie les livres en attendant que J'etudie les hommes," writes Voltaire. "Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty ...

— Germany and the Germans - From an American Point of View (1913) • Price Collier

... on the trail. He made a short cut over the ridges and by the time the mist had lifted from the valley he was within stalking distance of the glade. He approached this in the familiar, slow, cautious manner, and halted behind the big rock from which he and Wetzel had leaped. The wood ...

— The Last Trail • Zane Grey

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