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A kind of short-barreled pocket pistol, of very large caliber, often carrying a half-ounce ball.

A short glass jar fitted with an air-tight cover, and containing some desiccating agent, as sulphuric acid or calcium chloride, above which is suspended the material to be dried, or preserved from moisture.

To shorten by cutting; to cut off; to lop off.

A figure by which a syllable naturally short is made long.

Straight; not crooked, oblique, or circuitous; leading by the short or shortest way to a point or end; as, a direct line; direct means. What is direct to, what slides by, the question. Locke.

disfigured. [Obs.] Dishonest with lopped arms the youth appears, Spoiled of his nose and shortened of his ears. Dryden.

Not yielding. Medicines used unnecessarily contribute to shorten life, by sooner rendering peculiar parts of the system disobedient to stimuli. E. Darwin.

The space between two objects; the length of a line, especially the shortest line joining two points or things that are separate; measure of separation in place. Every particle attracts every other with a force . . . inversely proportioned to the square of the distance. Sir I. Newton.

A saying or utterance; especially, one that is short and frequently repeated; a theme. O, too high ditty for my simple rhyme. Spenser.

A short ballet, or other entertainment, between the acts of a play. Smart.

ivision (Math.), the process of division when the operations are mostly written down. -- Short division (Math.), the process of division when the operations are mentally performed and only the results written down; -- used principally when the divisor is not greater than ten or twelve.

to cut off, as the end of a thing; to curtail; to cut short; to clip; as, to dock the tail of a horse. His top was docked like a priest biforn. Chaucer.

large, extinct bird (Didus ineptus), formerly inhabiting the Island of Mauritius. It had short, half-fledged wings, like those of the ostrich, and a short neck and legs; -- called also dronte. It was related to the pigeons.

an, or collier, Aphis (Aphis fable), destructive to beans. -- Dolphin striker (Naut.), a short vertical spar under the bowsprit.

A short musket hooked to a swivel attached to a soldier's belt; -- so called from a representation of a dragon's head at the muzzle. Fairholt.

To fall short of a mark. [R.] Often it drops or overshoots by the disproportion of distance. Collier.

Having short legs, like a waddling duck; short-legged. Dryden.

A short tobacco pipe. [Written also dudheen.] [Irish]

A duet of short extent and concise form.

A weight, consisting of two spheres or spheroids, connected by a short bar for a handle; used (often in pairs) for gymnastic exercise.