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(), a.[Compar.Shorter (); superl.Shortest.] [OE. short, schort, AS. scort, sceort; akin to OHG. scurz, Icel. skorta to be short of, to lack, and perhaps to E. shear, v. t. Cf. Shirt.] 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 acc Short n. 1. A summary account. The short and the long is, our play is preferred. Shak. 2. pl. The part of milled grain sifted out which is next finer than the bran. The first remove above bran is shorts. Halliwell. 3. pl. Short, inferior hemp. 4. pl. Breeches; shortclothes. [Slang] Dickens. 5. (Phon.) A short sound, syllable, or vowel. 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. In short, in few words; in brief; briefly. The long and the short, the whole; a brief summing up. The shorts (Stock Exchange), those who are unsupplied with stocks which they contracted to deliver. Short (), adv.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. To sell short (Stock Exchange), to sell, for future delivery, what the party selling does not own, but hopes to buy at a lower rate. Short v. t.[AS. sceortian.] To shorten. [Obs.] Short v. i.To fail; to decrease. [Obs.] スポンサード リンク
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