\Short\, a. [Compar. {Shorter}; superl. {Shortest}.] [OE.
short, schort, AS. scort, sceort; akin to OHG. scurz, Icel.
skorta to be short of, to lack, and perhaps to E. shear, v.
t. Cf. {Shirt}.]
1. Not long; having brief length or linear extension; as, a
   short distance; a short piece of timber; a short flight.
         The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch
         himself on it.                        --Isa. xxviii.
                                               20.
2. Not extended in time; having very limited duration; not
   protracted; as, short breath.
         The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
                                               --Chaucer.
         To short absense I could yield.       --Milton.
3. Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty; as,
   a short supply of provisions, or of water.
4. Insufficiently provided; inadequately supplied; scantily
   furnished; lacking; not coming up to a resonable, or the
   ordinary, standard; -- usually with of; as, to be short of
   money.
         We shall be short in our provision.   --Shak.
5. Deficient; defective; imperfect; not coming up, as to a
   measure or standard; as, an account which is short of the
   trith.
6. Not distant in time; near at hand.
         Marinell was sore offended That his departure thence
         should be so short.                   --Spenser.
         He commanded those who were appointed to attend him
         to be ready by a short day.           --Clarendon.
7. Limited in intellectual power or grasp; not comprehensive;
   narrow; not tenacious, as memory.
         Their own short understandings reach No farther than
         the present.                          --Rowe.
8. Less important, efficaceous, or powerful; not equal or
   equivalent; less (than); -- with of.
         Hardly anything short of an invasion could rouse
         them again to war.                    --Landor.
9. Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant; as, he gave a short
   answer to the question.
10. (Cookery) Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth;
    crisp; as, short pastry.
11. (Metal) Brittle.
Note: Metals that are brittle when hot are called ?ot-short;
      as, cast iron may be hot-short, owing to the presence
      of sulphur. Those that are brittle when cold are called
      cold-short; as, cast iron may be cold-short, on account
      of the presence of phosphorus.
12. (Stock Exchange) Engaging or engaged to deliver what is
    not possessed; as, short contracts; to be short of stock.
    See The shorts, under {Short}, n., and To sell short,
    under {Short}, adv.
Note: In mercantile transactions, a note or bill is sometimes
      made payable at short sight, that is, in a little time
      after being presented to the payer.
13. (Phon.) Not prolonged, or relatively less prolonged, in
    utterance; -- opposed to {long}, and applied to vowels or
    to syllables. In English, the long and short of the same
    letter are not, in most cases, the long and short of the
    same sound; thus, the i in ill is the short sound, not of
    i in isle, but of ee in eel, and the e in pet is the
    short sound of a in pate, etc. See {Quantity}, and Guide
    to Pronunciation, [sect][sect]22, 30.
Note: Short is much used with participles to form numerous
      self-explaining compounds; as, short-armed,
      short-billed, short-fingered, short-haired,
      short-necked, short-sleeved, short-tailed,
      short-winged, short-wooled, etc.
{At short notice}, in a brief time; promptly.
{Short rib} (Anat.), one of the false ribs.
{Short suit} (Whist), any suit having only three cards, or
   less than three. --R. A. Proctor.
{To come short}, {To cut short}, {To fall short}, etc. See
   under {Come}, {Cut}, etc.

\Short\, n.
1. A summary account.
         The short and the long is, our play is preferred.
                                               --Shak.
2. pl. The part of milled grain sifted out which is next
   finer than the bran.
         The first remove above bran is shorts. --Halliwell.
3. pl. Short, inferior hemp.
4. pl. Breeches; shortclothes. [Slang] --Dickens.
5. (Phonetics) A short sound, syllable, or vowel.
         If we compare the nearest conventional shorts and
         longs in English, as in ``bit'' and ``beat,''
         ``not'' and ``naught,'' we find that the short
         vowels are generally wide, the long narrow, besides
         being generally diphthongic as well. Hence,
         originally short vowels can be lengthened and yet
         kept quite distinct from the original longs. --H.
                                               Sweet.
{In short}, in few words; in brief; briefly.
{The long and the short}, the whole; a brief summing up.
{The shorts} (Stock Exchange), those who are unsupplied with
   stocks which they contracted to deliver.

\Short\, adv.
In a short manner; briefly; limitedly; abruptly; quickly; as,
to stop short in one's course; to turn short.
      He was taken up very short, and adjudged corrigible for
      such presumptuous language.              --Howell.
{To sell short} (Stock Exchange), to sell, for future
   delivery, what the party selling does not own, but hopes
   to buy at a lower rate.

\Short\, v. t. [AS. sceortian.]
To shorten. [Obs.]

\Short\, v. i.
To fail; to decrease. [Obs.]