Definition of short

• 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.