SHORTENING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Shortening

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/ʃˈɔrtənɪŋ/ /ʃˈɔrtnɪŋ/ Listen

verb

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

1.

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

2.

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."

3.

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

4.

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.

noun

Shortening n.

1.

The act of making or becoming short or shorter.

2.

(Cookery) That which renders pastry short or friable, as butter, lard, etc.

See images of 'Shortening'

Etymology of 'Shortening'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Shortening" Quotes from Famous Books

... tell Commander Nesbitt that he had better begin shortening in cable at daylight, so that we might ...

— Crown and Anchor - Under the Pen'ant • John Conroy Hutcheson

... out behind the British column, without opponents as yet, but hastening up to get their share of the action. Hood's flagship, (f), which anchored at 4.03, opened fire again at 4.40 P.M. Thus, as the Canada and her few companions, who bore the brunt of the day, were shortening sail and rounding-to, (b), still under a hot cannonade, the batteries of their predecessors were ringing out their welcome, and at the same time covering their movements by giving the enemy much else ...

— The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence • A. T. Mahan

... sensitive to this defect, some try to increase their stature by high heels, which renders their gait awkward, besides being injurious to health. Others endeavor to add to their apparent height by cultivating a long waist. This they do at the expense of shortening the lower limbs, thus making themselves seem shorter than they actually are. Others strive to attain the same end by dressing the hair high, in this way too often adding to the apparent bulk of the head and giving a top-heavy ...

— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke

... came to the islands that lie in the mouth of the Gulf of St Lawrence, to have suspected that a passage here lay to the open sea. Doubtless the set of the wind and current revealed it to the trained instinct of the pilot. 'If it were so,' he wrote, 'it would be a great shortening as well of the time as of the way, if any perfection could be found in it.' But it was just as well that he did not seek further the opening into the Atlantic. By turning westward from the 'heel' of ...

— The Mariner of St. Malo: A Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier • Stephen Leacock

... imprint showing where the buck had bounded at the shot, but no blood. He followed, and a dozen feet away found the next hoof marks and on them a bright-red stain; on and another splash; and more and shortening bounds, till one hundred yards away—yes, there it lay; the round, gray form, quite ...

— Rolf In The Woods • Ernest Thompson Seton

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