short

English Dictionary -> Letter S -> short

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short Definition

(a) primarily temporal sense; indicating or being or seeming to be limited in duration; "a short life"; "a short flight"; "a short holiday"; "a short story"; "only a few short months"
(a) primarily spatial sense; having little length or lacking in length; "short skirts"; "short hair"; "the board was a foot short"; "a short toss"
(a) low in stature; not tall; "his was short and stocky"; "short in stature"; "a short smokestack"
(a) not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices; "a short sale"; "short in cotton"
(a) of speech sounds (especially vowels) of relatively short duration (as e.g. the English vowel sounds in `pat'', `pet'', `pit'', `pot'', putt'')
(n) the location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed
(n) accidental contact between two points in an electric circuit that have a potential difference
(n) the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed between 2nd and 3rd base
(r) quickly and without warning; "he stopped suddenly"
(r) without possessing something at the time it is contractually sold; "he made his fortune by selling short just before the crash"
(r) clean across; "the car''s axle snapped short"
(r) at some point or distance before a goal is reached; "he fell short of our expectations"
(r) so as to interrupt; "She took him up short before he could continue"
(r) at a disadvantage; "I was caught short"
(r) tightly; "she caught him up short on his lapel"
(r) in a curt, abrupt and discourteous manner; "he told me curtly to get on with it"; "he talked short with everyone"; "he said shortly that he didn''t like it"
(s) not sufficient to meet a need; "an inadequate income"; "a poor salary"; "money is short"; "on short rations"; "food is in short supply"; "short on experience"
(s) containing a large amount of shortening; therefore tender and easy to crumble or break into flakes; "shortbread is a short crumbly cookie"; "a short flaky pie crust"
(s) less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so; "a light pound"; "a scant cup of sugar"; "regularly gives short weight"
(s) used of syllables that are unaccented or of relatively brief duration
(s) (of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range; "a short memory"
(s) lacking foresight or scope; "a short view of the problem"; "shortsighted policies"; "shortsighted critics derided the plan"; "myopic thinking"
(s) unwilling to endure; "she was short with the slower students"
(s) quickly aroused to anger; "a hotheaded commander"
(s) most direct; "took the shortest and most direct route to town"
(v) cheat someone by not returning him enough money
(v) create a short-circuit in

short Synonyms