See Also: Short short test(finance)
Short-short test(money)
Short ratio (or short interest ratio)(finance)
Short(medicine)
short cut(1)(dictionary)
Short against the box(money)
short ton(medicine)
Short(finance)
short(2)(dictionary)
Short(money)

short(1) (iou)



short adjective, noun, & adverb.

A. adjective.
I. With ref. to spatial measurement.
Having small longitudinal extent; small in measurement from end to end. OE.
Jan Morris The cathedral..is the shortest in England (155 feet long). C. Priest I don't like your hair as short as that. P. Fitzgerald When the little one sat down..her legs were..too short to reach the ground.
b. Of action, vision, etc.: acting at or extending to a small distance; fig. (of a mental power etc.) restricted in range. LME.
c. fig. In biblical and derived uses: (of a person's authority) having a limited range of power; inadequate. Long arch. M16.
Bible (AV): Numbers 11:23 And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lords hand waxed short?
d. (Of distance) not great; (of a journey) extending over a small distance. L16.
J. F. Lehmann She was going for a short walk.
e. Foll. by in: having a specified part (too) short. E19.
Thackeray My coat was..high in the waist and short in the sleeves.
Of a person: low in stature, not tall. OE.
Of the sea: having small waves; choppy. L17.
Lifeboat The..trip was uncomfortable with short steep seas.
II. With ref. to serial extent or duration.
a. Of a period of time, or a process, state, or action: having little extent in duration; not lasting a long time, brief, short-lived. OE.
N. Farah Too many things had taken place in such a short time. J. Higgins Are you ready? Time's getting short. A. Macrae At the vet's there was a short wait.
b. Of a person's memory: not retaining the recollection of events for a long period. ME.
Of a series, succession, a speech, a sentence, a word, a literary work, etc.: having a small extent from beginning to end; soon finished. OE.
D. H. Lawrence She read the short letter quickly. R. Quirk Very short words like cat.
Phonetics & Prosody. Of a vowel, in mod. use also of a consonant or syllable: having the lesser of two recognized contrastive durations. Also (Prosody) (of a vowel or syllable) unstressed. OE.
a. (Of a point in time) early, soon, near at hand; Commerce (of a bill of exchange) maturing at an early date. Chiefly in short date below, and in legal phr. a short day. ME.
b. Of notice: given not long beforehand. E19.
Quick, speedy, prompt. ME-L18.
Brief in a rude, angry, or stern manner; curt, sharp, impatient (foll. by with a person). LME.
T. Wogan That audience had a short way with comedians. J. Elliot Rainbird, whose temper was short after a sleepless night.
(Of breathing) coming in hurried gasps, impeded; (of a cough) abrupt, dry, fast; (of a pulse) quick. LME.
Of a style of language, later also of a writer or speaker: concise, brief. L15.
Of an alcoholic drink, esp. spirits: undiluted. colloq. E19.
III. Not reaching to some standard.
a. Not attaining some standard or amount; scarce, inadequate in quantity; unfairly deficient. LME.
J. Betjeman When sugar was short and the world was fighting.
b. Designating a period of time, a number, a weight, or a quantity smaller than the usual period etc. of that name. Also, felt as unusually or excessively short in duration or small in quantity. E18.
International Combat Arms Warfare..is vastly more dangerous..than it was only a few short years ago.
Of a throw, a missile, etc.: travelling too short a distance, not reaching the mark. M16.
Not fully attaining or amounting to (some condition or degree); not equalling, inferior to, less than. Freq. with adverb or adverbial phr. expressing the extent of the deficiency. Usu. foll. by of. M16.
G. Durrell Nothing short of a..catastrophe would shake them. R. Gittings A fortnight short of his twenty-first birthday. J. Trollope He regarded her with something little short of loathing.
a. Defaulting in payments. Formerly also, inefficient, defective. L16.
b. Having an insufficient supply (of money, food, etc.); lacking (something necessary), deficient. Now also foll. by on. L17.
R. Macaulay I was getting pretty short, and had only twenty pounds left. G. Naylor Willie's a little..short on cash.
c. Stock Exchange. Having sold as yet unacquired stock which the seller hopes can be bought at a lower price before the time fixed for delivery; pertaining to such stock. Also foll. by of. US. M19.
d. Of a race-horse: not on top form. US colloq. M20.
IV. Brittle.
a. Of pastry, meat, etc.: crumbly, easily crumbled. LME.
b. Of clay, metal, etc.: brittle, fragile, friable. E17.
Of a liquid: not viscous. rare. E17.
Phrases: at short intervals at times separated by brief intervals. at short range: see RANGE noun1. cut a long story short be brief or concise (freq. in to cut a long story short, to be brief, in short). draw the short straw: see draw straws (b) s.v. STRAW noun. get by the short and curlies, get by the short hairs slang gain complete control of (a person). have by the short and curlies, have by the short hairs slang be in complete control of (a person). in short order: see ORDER noun. in short supply: see SUPPLY noun 8. long short story: see LONG adjective1. make short cut one's speech short. make short work of deal with, dispose of, or consume quickly. run short: see RUN verb. short and sweet brief and pleasant; iron. unusually brief and severe or decisive. short back and sides: see BACK noun1. short for an abbreviation for. the short answer is used to introduce a straightforward or immediate response or solution. the short robe fig. (arch.) swordsmen, those who (are accustomed to) bear arms (cf. the long robe s.v. LONG adjective1). thick as two short planks: see THICK adjective.
Special collocations & comb.: short-arc adjective (of a discharge lamp) that has a short gap between the electrodes. short-arm adjective & noun (a) (a punch) delivered with the arm not fully extended; (b) slang (orig. & chiefly Military) (designating) an inspection of the penis for venereal disease or other infection. short-arse slang a person of small stature; a worthless person. short-arsed adjective (slang) of small stature; worthless. short-ass US slang = short-arse above. short-assed adjective (US slang) = short-arsed above. short ball Cricket a ball which pitches short of a length. short ballot US a ballot in which only the main offices are elected, the minor offices being filled by appointment; a form for such a ballot. short bill Commerce a bill having fewer than ten days to run. short-breathed adjective short of breath, suffering difficulty in breathing. short cards US any of various card-games played for money. short chain adjective (Chemistry) a relatively small number of atoms (usu. of carbon) linked together in a line (freq. attrib. with hyphen). short change insufficient money given as change. short-change verb trans. (orig. US) rob or cheat by giving insufficient change; fig. cheat, deceive. short cloth a kind of cotton cloth or calico manufactured in short pieces. short clothes arch. garments used to clothe a baby when long clothes are no longer used. short-coat noun & verb (arch.) (a) noun a person wearing a short coat; (b) verb trans. dress (a baby) in short clothes. short-coating collect. (arch.) the various articles required when a baby is short-coated. short commons: see COMMONS 5. short con US slang a small-scale confidence racket. short corner Hockey a penalty hit taken from a spot on the goal-line up to within ten yards of the goalposts. short covering Stock Exchange the buying in of stock or goods to cover a short sale (see sense 16c above). short cross (a) Printing in a handpress, a bar dividing a chase the shortest way; (b) Numismatics a cross of which the arms extend only to the inner circle on a coin. short date an early date for the maturing of a bill etc. short-dated adjective (a) lasting a short time; (b) due for early payment or redemption. short-day adjective (a) having a short working day; (b) (of a plant) needing days with less than a certain maximum length of daylight to induce flowering. short delivery Commerce delivery of goods less in quantity than agreed on or invoiced. short division: see DIVISION noun 5. short dog slang cheap wine. short drink a strong alcoholic drink, esp. spirits, served in small measures. short dung = short manure below. short-eared owl a light-coloured day-flying owl flecked with brown or black, Asio flammeus, which has very short ear-tufts and is of almost worldwide distribution. short-eat in Sri Lanka, a snack. short end (a) (in pl.) odds and ends; (b) a remnant of cloth; (c) N. Amer. colloq. the inferior part (of something), the losing end, a bad deal; (d) Commerce that part of a stock market which deals in short-term stocks. Shorter Catechism: see CATECHISM noun 2. short field Baseball that part of the field in which the short stop plays. short fielder Baseball a short stop. short focus Photography a focal point that is near to the lens; short-focus lens, (a) a wide-angle lens; (b) a close-up lens. short fuse colloq. a quick temper. short-fused adjective (colloq.) quick-tempered. short game Golf play at the approach to and on the green. short gown arch. a dress with a very short skirt. short grain a condition of the fibres in wood which gives rise to brittleness. short-grained adjective (of wood) having a short fibre rendering it liable to snap easily; (of rice) having a relatively short grain. short-grass adjective (of a prairie etc.) characterized by certain short drought-resistant grasses. short-hair (an animal of) a breed of short-haired cat. short-haired adjective having short hair; of a kind or breed characterized by short hair; short-haired terrier: see TERRIER noun1 1a. short-hairs slang (a) US a branch of the Democratic Party in the Western States who show discontent with the administration; (b) pubic hair. short-haul adjective designating or pertaining to travel, transport of goods, or any effort made, over a short distance. short head (a) a person who has a skull of less than average length; spec. in Anthropology a brachycephalic person; (b) Racing a distance less than the length of a horse's head. short-head verb trans. beat by a short head. short-headed adjective having a short head; brachycephalic. short-headedness the quality or state of being short-headed. shorthorn (a) (an animal of) a breed of dairy cattle having short horns, orig. bred in County Durham and formerly widely distributed in Britain etc. (also more fully Durham shorthorn); (b) a small round variety of carrot; (c) US slang a new arrival, a greenhorn. short-horned adjective having short horns. short horse US = quarter-horse s.v. QUARTER noun. short hour an hour indicated by one of the smaller number of strokes on a clock etc. short HUNDREDWEIGHT. short leet: see LEET noun2. short leg: see LEG noun. short list a list of selected names, esp. of candidates for a post, from which a final selection is made. short-list verb trans. put on a short list. short manure manure containing brittle straw in an advanced state of decay. short mark a mark &nfbreve; placed over a vowel letter to indicate short quantity. short measure (a) less than the stipulated or expected amount; (b) Music an arrangement of the keyboard of a spinet in which advantage is taken of the short octave. short metre a hymn stanza of four lines of which the first, second, and fourth are of six syllables and the third of eight. short notice an insufficient amount of warning time. short octave Music a lower octave of some early keyboard instruments in which some of the intermediate keys are omitted. short odds nearly equal stakes or chances in betting. short order N. Amer. an order for food to be prepared and served up quickly; a dish so served. Short Parliament: see PARLIAMENT noun. short-period adjective lasting for a brief period of time; recurring at short intervals. short prescription Law a prescription established by a short period of use. short price a low price; low odds in betting. short-punt verb intrans. (Rugby Football) punt the ball a short distance. short-range adjective having a short range; of or pertaining to a short period of future time. short rib any of the lower ribs which do not attach to the sternum; a piece of meat containing one or more of such ribs. short run (a) Cricket a run not properly completed by the batsman; (b) in the short run, over a brief period of time, in the short term; (c) a short period of continuous presentation (of a play, a broadcast programme, etc.); (d) a class or line of goods produced in limited quantity. short-run adjective taken or considered in the short run; short-term. short score Music a reduced version of a full score on usu. two staves. short sea(s): see SEA noun 7. short service military service limited to a prescribed short period. short-sheet verb trans. (colloq.) make an apple-pie bed for (someone); play a trick on (someone); short shorts US very short trousers.; briefs. short shrift: see SHRIFT noun. short sight the defect of sight by which only near objects are seen distinctly; myopia. short-sighted adjective (a) lacking in foresight or in extent of intellectual outlook; (b) having short sight; unable to distinguish objects clearly at a distance; myopic. short-sightedly adverb in a short-sighted manner. short-sightedness the condition of being short-sighted. short-six Hist. (a) (in pl.) short candles, six of which went to the pound; (b) US a kind of cigar. short sleeve a sleeve which does not extend below the elbow. short-sleeved adjective having short sleeves. short slip Cricket = first slip s.v. SLIP noun3 11. short-snorter US Military slang a list of signatures written on a string of bills of money. short-spined adjective having short spines; short-spined sea scorpion: see SEA noun. short square (leg) Cricket a square leg standing close in to the wicket. short-staffed adjective having insufficient staff, understaffed. short-stage noun & adjective (Hist.) (a coach travelling) with short distances between stopping places. short staple adjective & noun (designating) cotton having a short fibre. shortstop (a) Cricket = first slip s.v. SLIP noun3 11; (b) Baseball (the position of) a fielder defending the infield area who stands between second and third base. short story a story with a fully developed theme but shorter than a novel; short short story, a very short story. Short Street colloq. an imaginary street where people in financial difficulty are supposed to live. short subject (chiefly US) a short film, typically one shown before the screening of a feature film. short suit Cards a suit of which a player has few cards; fig. one's weak point. short-suited adjective having a short suit. short sweetening US cane or maple sugar. short sword Hist. a sword with a short blade. short temper self-control soon or easily lost. short tempered adjective quick to lose one's temper. short tennis: played on a small court with a small racket and a soft ball. short time (a) the condition of working less than the regular number of hours per day or of days per week (freq. attrib.); (b) slang a brief visit to a prostitute; a brief stay in a hotel for sexual purposes. short-timer (a) Hist. a child who is allowed to attend school for less than the full number of hours daily; (b) US Military slang a person nearing the end of his or her period of military service; (c) slang a person serving a short prison sentence; (d) slang a person who makes a brief stay in a hotel for sexual purposes; a person who visits a prostitute. short title an abbreviated form of a title of a book etc. short-toed adjective having short toes; short-toed eagle, an Old World eagle, Circaetus gallicus, which has prominent white underparts and feeds largely on snakes etc.; short-toed lark, any of several small pale Old World larks of the genera Calandrella and Spizocorys, esp. C. cinerea, which occurs throughout southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. short ton: see TON noun1 4. short-tongued adjective having a short tongue; (now dial.) inarticulate, stammering, lisping; taciturn. short trousers: reaching only to the knee (esp. as worn by young boys). short view a consideration or regard for the present only, not the future. short waist (a) a high or shallow waist of a dress; (b) a short upper body. short-waisted adjective having a short waist. shortwall noun & adjective (Mining) (pertaining to or involving) a short coalface. short wave (a) a wave of relatively short wavelength; spec. in Radio a radio wave with a wavelength of less than about 100 metres (a frequency of three to 30 megahertz); radio communication or broadcasting employing such waves (usu. attrib., freq. with hyphen); (b) attrib. (with hyphen) Medicine designating diathermy which uses electrical frequencies within the short-wave radio range. short weight weight less than it is alleged to be. short-weight verb trans. (US) give less than the alleged weight to. short whist: see WHIST noun2. shortwing any of several small S. Asian songbirds of the thrush family and esp. of the genus Brachypteryx, with long legs, short wings and tail, and dark brown or blue plumage. short-wool (a) wool having a short staple or fibre; (b) a sheep of a breed with short wool. short-woolled adjective (of a sheep) having short wool.
b. noun.
I. absol.
a. in short, briefly, concisely; to sum up. Earliest in in short and plain. LME.
M. Wheeler Our brief..visit..was, in short, not without incident.
b. for short, as an abbreviation. M19.
Times Literary Supplement A 'cumulative sum' chart, or 'cusum' chart for short.
The total, the result, the upshot (of). Now chiefly in the long and the short of it s.v. LONG noun 2. L16.
II. As count noun.
a. A short note in music; a short syllable or vowel; a mark indicating that a vowel or (formerly) a note is short. L16.
longs and shorts: see LONG noun.
b. = short drink above. colloq. E19.
c. A contraction or abbreviation of a name or phrase. L19.
d. A dot in Morse code; a short buzz etc. sounded as a signal. L19.
e. Electricity. = SHORT CIRCUIT noun phr. E20.
f. A short story, film, etc. E20.
g. A streetcar; a car. US slang. E20.
h. Military. A shot that falls short of its target. E20.
In pl.
a. A mixture of bran and coarse flour. M18.
b. Cuttings of tobacco. M19.
In pl. & (US) sing.
a. Trousers reaching only to the knees or higher; US underpants. E19.
b. Short clothes for a baby. arch. M19.
In pl. Short whist. Now rare. E19.
Anything that is short or lacking. M19.
Stock Exchange.
a. A person who sells as yet unbought stock, in expectation of a drop in price before having to buy it. M19.
b. In pl. Short-dated stocks. M20.
Baseball. = shortstop (b) above. M19.
C. adverb.
In a concise manner of speaking; briefly, curtly. Now rare. LME.
Rigidly confined, under strict discipline; closely, tightly. obsolete exc. in hold short, ride short below. LME.
a. For (only) a brief while. LME.
b. In a brief space of time, soon. M16-M17.
To a short distance or extent; with short length, steps, etc. LME.
On the nearer side of a point specified or aimed at; (foll. by of) distant from, not as far as. LME.
J. Poyer Terrain this rough was unusual short of the mountains.
Abruptly, suddenly. M16.
Horse & Hound Camille turned very short into the combination.
Phrases: be caught short colloq. urgently need to urinate or defecate. break short (off), snap short (off) break straight across. breathe short take short breaths. bring up short check abruptly, take by surprise. come short (a) arrive too late; (b) be imperfect or inadequate, fail to reach a standard; (foll. by of) be less than; come short home: see HOME adverb. cut short put a sudden end to; stop abruptly in a course of action, interrupt. falling short a failure in attainment, a deficiency. fall short: see FALL verb. go short (a) not have enough (freq. foll. by of); (b) (of a horse) take short strides, esp. as a symptom of lameness. hold short, ride short hold or ride (a horse) with a tight rein. pull up short = bring up short above. ride short: see hold short above. sell short (a) sell stock, a commodity, or goods which one does not own at the time, in the hope of buying at a lower price before the delivery time; (b) undervalue, belittle (freq. refl.). short of (a) less than; without going so far as, except; (see also sense 5 above); (b) colloq. (in a brick short of a load, two sandwiches short of a picnic, and similar phrs.) (of a person) not completely rational or sensible, mildly deranged. snap short (off): see break short above. stop short at, stop short of not go the length of (some extreme action). strike short: see STRIKE verb. take short (a) take by surprise; colloq. (in pass.) = be caught short above; (b) interrupt with a reply (freq. foll. by up). walk short = go short (b) above.
Comb.: short-acting adjective (Pharmacology) (of a drug) relatively transient in effect; short-pitched adjective (Cricket) (of a ball) pitching relatively near the bowler. short-running adjective (a) (of a hound or hare) running with short strides, slow in pace; (b) making short runs; short-set adjective (rare) of short build, stocky; short-spoken adjective abrupt or curt in speech.
shortish adjective somewhat short E19.