Short — Defs

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

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.” — Isa. xxviii. 20.
2.
Not extended in time; having very limited duration; not protracted; as, short breath.
“The life so short, the craft so long to learn.” — Chaucer.

“To short absense I could yield.” — Milton.
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.” — Shak.
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.” — Spenser.

“He commanded those who were appointed to attend him to be ready by a short day.” — Clarendon.
7.
Limited in intellectual power or grasp; not comprehensive; narrow; not tenacious, as memory.
“Their own short understandings reach No farther than the present.” — Rowe.
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.” — Landor.
9.
Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant; as, he gave a short answer to the question.
10.
Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth; crisp; as, short pastry.(Cookery)
11.
Brittle.(Metal)
12.
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.(Stock Exchange) See: Short, Short
13.
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.(Phon.) See: Quantity

Phrases & compounds

At short notice — in a brief time; promptly.

Short rib — one of the false ribs.

Short suit — any suit having only three cards, or less than three.

To come short — See under Come, Cut, etc.

02 n. A summary account.

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

Phrases & compounds

In short — in few words; in brief; briefly.

The long and the short — the whole; a brief summing up.

The shorts — those who are unsupplied with stocks which they contracted to deliver.

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

1.
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.” — Howell.

Phrases & compounds

To sell short — to sell, for future delivery, what the party selling does not own, but hopes to buy at a lower rate.

04 v. t. To shorten.

1.
To shorten.[Obs.]

05 v. i. To fail; to decrease.

1.
To fail; to decrease.[Obs.]