| short | |
| 1. adj. Having a small distance from one end or edge to another, either horizontally or vertically. | |
| 2. adj. (of a person) Of comparatively little height. | |
| 3. adj. Having little duration; opposite of long. | |
| Our meeting was a short six minutes today. Every day for the past month it's been at least twenty minutes long. | |
| 4. adj. (followed by for) Of a word or phrase, constituting an abbreviation (for another) or shortened form (of another). | |
| “Phone” is short for “telephone” and "asap" short for "as soon as possible". | |
| 5. adj. (cricket, of a fielder or fielding position) that is relatively close to the batsman. | |
| 6. adj. (cricket, of a ball) that bounced relatively far from the batsman. | |
| 7. adj. (golf, of an approach shot or putt) that falls short of the green or the hole. | |
| 8. adj. (of pastries and metals) Brittle, crumbly, especially due to the use of too much shortening. (See shortbread, shortcake, shortcrust.) | |
| 9. adj. Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant. | |
| He gave a short answer to the question. | |
| 10. adj. Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty. | |
| a short supply of provisions | |
| 11. adj. Insufficiently provided; inadequately supplied; scantily furnished; lacking. | |
| to be short of money | |
| The cashier came up short ten dollars on his morning shift. | |
| 12. adj. Deficient; less; not coming up to a measure or standard. | |
| an account which is short of the truth | |
| 13. adj. (obsolete) Not distant in time; near at hand. | |
| 14. adj. Being in a financial investment position that is structured to be profitable if the price of the underlying security declines in the future. | |
| I'm short General Motors because I think their sales are plunging. | |
| 15. adv. Abruptly, curtly, briefly. | |
| They had to stop short to avoid hitting the dog in the street. | |
| He cut me short repeatedly in the meeting. | |
| The boss got a message and cut the meeting short. | |
| 16. adv. Unawares. | |
| The recent developments at work caught them short. | |
| 17. adv. Without achieving a goal or requirement. | |
| His speech fell short of what was expected. | |
| 18. adv. (cricket, of the manner of bounce of a cricket ball) Relatively far from the batsman and hence bouncing higher than normal; opposite of full. | |
| 19. adv. (finance) With a negative ownership position. | |
| We went short most finance companies in July. | |
| 20. n. A short circuit. | |
| 21. n. A short film. | |
| 22. n. Used to indicate a short-length version of a size | |
| 38 short suits fit me right off the rack. | |
| Do you have that size in a short. | |
| 23. n. (baseball) A shortstop. | |
| Jones smashes a grounder between third and short. | |
| 24. n. (finance) A short seller. | |
| The market decline was terrible, but the shorts were buying champagne. | |
| 25. n. (finance) A short sale. | |
| He closed out his short at a modest loss after three months. | |
| 26. n. A summary account. | |
| 27. n. (phonetics) A short sound, syllable, or vowel. | |
| 28. n. (programming) An integer variable shorter than normal integers; usually two bytes long. | |
| 29. v. To cause a short circuit in (something). | |
| 30. v. (intransitive) Of an electrical circuit, to short circuit. | |
| 31. v. To shortchange. | |
| 32. v. To provide with a smaller than agreed or labeled amount. | |
| This is the third time I've caught them shorting us. | |
| 33. v. (transitive, business) To sell something, especially securities, that one does not own at the moment for delivery at a later date in hopes of profiting from a decline in the price; to sell short. | |
| 34. v. (obsolete) To shorten. | |
| 35. prep. Deficient in. | |
| We are short a few men on the second shift. | |
| He's short common sense. | |
| 36. prep. (finance) Having a negative position in. | |
| I don't want to be short the market going into the weekend. | |
