short
adj 1: 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" [ant: {long}]
2: primarily spatial sense; having little length or lacking in
length; "short skirts"; "short hair"; "the board was a
foot short"; "a short toss" [ant: {long}]
3: low in stature; not tall; "his was short and stocky"; "short
in stature"; "a short smokestack" [ant: {tall}]
4: 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" [syn: {inadequate},
{poor}]
5: (finance) not holding securities or commodities that one
sells in expectation of a fall in prices; "a short sale";
"short in cotton" [ant: {long}]
6: (phonetics) of speech sounds (especially vowels) of
relatively short duration (as e.g. the English vowel
sounds in `pat', `pet', `pit', `pot', putt') [ant: {long}]
7: 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"
8: less than the correct or legal or full amount often
deliberately so; "a light pound"; "a scant cup of sugar";
"regularly gives short weight" [syn: {light}, {scant(p)}]
9: (prosody) used of syllables that are unaccented or of
relatively brief duration
10: (of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range; "a short
memory"
11: lacking foresight or scope; "a short view of the problem";
"shortsighted policies"; "shortsighted critics derided
the plan" [syn: {shortsighted}, {unforesightful}]
12: unwilling to endure; "she was short with the slower
students" [syn: {unforbearing}]
13: quickly aroused to anger; "a hotheaded commander" [syn: {choleric},
{irascible}, {hotheaded}, {hot-tempered}, {quick-tempered},
{short-tempered}]
14: most direct; "took the shortest and most direct route to
town" [syn: {shortest}]
15: marked by rude or peremptory shortness; "try to cultivate a
less brusque manner"; "a curt reply"; "the salesgirl was
very short with him" [syn: {brusque}, {brusk}, {curt}, {short(p)}]
n 1: the location on a baseball field where the shortstop is
stationed
2: electrical circuit is overloaded [syn: {short circuit}]
3: the fielding position of the player on a baseball team who
is stationed between 2nd and 3rd base [syn: {shortstop}]
adv 1: quickly and without warning; "he stopped suddenly" [syn: {abruptly},
{suddenly}, {dead}]
2: (finance) without possessing something at the time it is
contractually sold; "he made his fortune by selling short
just before the crash"
3: clean across; "the car's axle snapped short"
4: at some point or distance before a goal is reached; "he fell
short of our expectations"
5: so as to interrupt; "She took him up short before he could
continue"
6: at a disadvantage; "I was caught short" [syn: {unawares}]
7: tightly; "she caught him up short on his lapel"
8: 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" [syn:
{curtly}, {shortly}]
v 1: cheat someone by not returning him enough money [syn: {short-change}]
2: create a short-circuit in [syn: {short-circuit}]