1. (primarily spatial sense) having little length or lacking in length
   "the board was a foot short"; "a short toss"; "short skirts"; "short hair"
    
2. Low in stature; not tall; describing something or someone with a stature less than normal
   "he was short and stocky"; "short in stature"; "a short smokestack";
   - little
    
3. Primarily temporal sense; indicating, being or seeming to be limited in duration
   "a short holiday"; "a short story"; "only a few short months"; "a short life"; "a short flight"
    
4. Of insufficient quantity to meet a need
   "money is short"; "on short rations"; "food is in short supply"; "short on experience";
   - inadequate, poor, jejune
    
5. Less than the correct, legal or full amount, often deliberately
   "regularly gives short weight";
   - light, scant
    
6. Lacking foresight or scope
   "a short view of the problem"; "a short-sighted view of the problem";
   - shortsighted, unforesightful, myopic, short-sighted
    
7. (of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range
   "a short memory";
   - unretentive, forgetful
    
8. (finance) not holding securities or commodities that one sells in expectation of a fall in prices
   "a short sale"; "short in cotton"
    
9. (phonetics) of speech sounds or syllables of relatively short duration
   "the English vowel sounds in ‘pat’, ‘pet’, ‘pit’, ‘pot’, ‘putt’ are short"
    
10. Tending to crumble or break into flakes due to a large amount of shortening
    "shortbread is a short crumbly cookie"; "a short flaky pie crust"
     
11. Marked by rude or peremptory shortness
    "the salesgirl was very short with him";
    - brusque, brusk [non-standard], curt, snippy [informal]

1. Accidental contact between two points in an electric circuit that have a potential difference
   "The faulty wiring caused a short circuit, tripping the breaker";
   - short circuit
    
2. Sale of securities or commodity futures not owned by the seller (who hopes to buy them back later at a lower price)
   "The investor engaged in short selling to profit from the expected market downturn";
   - short sale, short selling
    
3. The fielding position of the player on a baseball team who is stationed between second and third base
   "The short made a spectacular diving catch";
   - shortstop
    
4. The location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed
   "The batter hit a ground ball to short"

1. Cheat someone by not returning them enough money
   "The dishonest cashier tried to short-change customers during busy periods";
   - short-change
    
2. Create a short circuit in
   "The faulty wiring short-circuited the appliance"; "Water shorted the electrical system";
   - short-circuit
    
3. (finance) sell borrowed shares in the hope that the price will fall before they have to be paid for
   "hedge funds are shorting British companies in expectation of a stock market crash"

1. So as to interrupt
   "She took him up short before he could continue"
    
2. At a disadvantage
   "I was caught short";
   - unawares
    
3. In a curt, abrupt and discourteous manner
   "he talked short with everyone";
   - curtly, shortly
    
4. Clean across
   "the car's axle snapped short"
    
5. (finance) without possessing something at the time it is contractually sold
   "he made his fortune by selling short just before the crash"
    
6. At some point or distance before a goal is reached
   "he fell short of our expectations"
    
7. Quickly and without warning
   "he stopped short";
   - suddenly, all of a sudden, on the spur of the moment, of a sudden, abruptly, dead

Derived forms: shorting, shorts, shorted, shortest, shorter

See also: abbreviated, breakable, brief, chunky, clipped, close, compact, curtal [archaic], deficient, discourteous, dumpy, duration, fleeting, forgetful, fugitive, half-length, heavyset, height, ignorant, improvident, insufficient, length, low, low-set, mindless, momentaneous, momentary, pint-size [informal], pint-sized [informal], runty, sawed-off [N. Amer], sawn-off [Brit], short and sweet, short-dated [Brit], shortened, shortish, short-range, short-run, short-snouted, short-stalked, short-term, snub, squab, squabby, squat, squatty, stature, stocky, stubby, stumpy, telescoped, thick, thickset, truncate, truncated, unmindful

Type of: bunco [N. Amer, informal], bunko [N. Amer, informal], con [informal], contact, create, defraud, diddle [informal], fleece [informal], goldbrick [N. Amer, informal], grift [N. Amer, informal], hornswoggle [N. Amer, informal], make, mulct, parcel, parcel of land, piece of ground, piece of land, position, ream [N. Amer, informal], rook, scam [informal], short-change, swindle, tangency, tract, trading

Antonym: long

Part of: baseball diamond, baseball team, circuit, diamond, electric circuit, electrical circuit, infield

Encyclopedia: Short, OK