SHORTEN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Shorten

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/ʃˈɔrtən/ Listen

verb

Shorten v. t. (past & past part. shortened; pres. part. shortening)

To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity.

To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc. "Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain."

To make deficient (as to); to deprive; with of. "Spoiled of his nose, and shortened of his ears."

To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, pot liquor, or the like.

To shorten a rope (Naut.), to take in the slack of it.

To shorten sail (Naut.), to reduce sail by taking it in.

Shorten v. i. To become short or shorter; as, the day shortens in northern latitudes from June to December; a metallic rod shortens by cold.

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Etymology of 'Shorten'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Shorten" Quotes from Famous Books

... to feel the whip," Lutali was saying. "Clearly they are of no further use. You, Murad, shorten me the shadow of yonder ...

— The Sign of the Spider • Bertram Mitford

... the work for which his vocal means, not his preference, are best adapted. To follow the contrary path, and essay roles requiring for their fitting expression more dramatic fire and intensity than his vocal instrument can supply, would be to shorten his career, owing to the certain deterioration and possible extinction of the voice. There are sufficient voiceless examples to prove, were proof needed, the truth of this assertion; and their atonic condition is due to the ...

— Style in Singing • W. E. Haslam

... Estevan say to Cuchillo, the night before, that he should only pass two hours at the hacienda before his departure; and as the last events which had taken place at Don Augustin's must have tended to shorten his stay, there was no time to hesitate. The horse of Pepe became a precious auxiliary in following the fugitives, and, if necessary, for cutting off their retreat. It remained to be decided who should mount him, and undertake an enterprise so perilous ...

— Wood Rangers - The Trappers of Sonora • Mayne Reid

... New England households, the annual house-cleaning, were robbed of some of their dismal terrors by what was known as a "whang," a gathering of a few friendly women neighbors to assist one another in that dire time, and thus speed and shorten ...

— Home Life in Colonial Days • Alice Morse Earle

... the Various Pitches are Produced. With a pipe of fixed length, for example, the clarinet (Fig. 189, 1), different pitches are obtained by pressing keys which open holes in the tube and thus shorten or lengthen the vibrating air column and produce a rise or fall in pitch. Changes in pitch are also produced by variation in the player's breathing. By blowing hard or gently, the number of vibrations of the reed is increased or decreased and hence ...

— General Science • Bertha M. Clark

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