shorten

shorten
verb (shortened; shortening) Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. a. to reduce the length or duration of b. to cause to seem short 2. a. to reduce in power or efficiency <
is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem — Isaiah 50:2 (Revised Standard Version)
>
b. obsolete to deprive of effect 3. to add fat to (as pastry dough) in order to make tender and flaky intransitive verb to become short or shorter • shortener noun Synonyms: shorten, curtail, abbreviate, abridge, retrench mean to reduce in extent. shorten implies reduction in length or duration <
shorten a speech
>
. curtail adds an implication of cutting that in some way deprives of completeness or adequacy <
ceremonies curtailed because of rain
>
. abbreviate implies a making shorter usually by omitting some part <
using an abbreviated title
>
. abridge implies a reduction in compass or scope with retention of essential elements and a relative completeness in the result <
the abridged version of the novel
>
. retrench suggests a reduction in extent or costs of something felt to be excessive <
declining business forced the company to retrench
>
.

New Collegiate Dictionary. 2001.

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  • Shorten — (SHN) ist ein digitales Verfahren zur verlustfreien Audiodatenkompression. Shorten ist ein Format zur platzsparenden Archivierung von PCM Wave Dateien mit 44,1 kHz 16 Bit Stereo mit niederer Komplexität und ist daher schnell und braucht… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Shorten — Short en, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Shortened ?}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Shortening}.] [See {Short}, a.] 1. To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity. [1913 Webster] 2. To… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Shorten — (SHN) es un formato de archivo usado para comprensión sin pérdidas para archivos de audio calidad CD (44.1 kHz 16 bit estéreo PCM. Es un formato de archivos de datos comprimido similar al ZIP, RAR, y Stufflt; pero está optimizado para compresión… …   Wikipedia Español

  • shorten — shorten, curtail, abbreviate, abridge, retrench can all mean to reduce in extent, especially by cutting. Shorten commonly implies reduction in length or duration {shorten a road by eliminating curves} {to shorten a visit} It is also often used of …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • shorten — [shôrt′ n] vt. 1. to make short or shorter; reduce in length, amount, or extent 2. to furl or reef (a sail) so that less canvas is exposed to the breeze 3. to add shortening in making (pastry, etc.) for crispness or flakiness vi. to become short… …   English World dictionary

  • Shorten — Short en, v. i. To become short or shorter; as, the day shortens in northern latitudes from June to December; a metallic rod shortens by cold. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • shorten — index abstract (summarize), commute, condense, constrict (compress), curtail, decrease, digest ( …   Law dictionary

  • shorten — (v.) 1510s, from SHORT (Cf. short) (adj.); the earlier form of the verb was simply short, from O.E. sceortian to grow short, gescyrtan to make short …   Etymology dictionary

  • shorten — [v] diminish, decrease abbreviate, abridge, blue pencil*, bob, boil down*, chop, clip, compress, condense, contract, curtail, cut, cut back, cut down, cut to the bone*, dock, edit, elide, excerpt, lessen, lop, make a long story short*, minimize,… …   New thesaurus

  • shorten — ► VERB 1) make or become shorter. 2) Sailing reduce the amount of (sail spread) …   English terms dictionary

  • Shorten — Infobox Software name = Shorten caption = developer = Tony Robinson latest release version = latest release date = latest preview version = latest preview date = operating system = Cross platform genre = Audio codec Encoder license = website =… …   Wikipedia

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