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

One who, or that which, shortens.

The act of making or becoming short or shorter.

t on a plane surface, as if extended in a direction toward the spectator or nearly so; to shorten by drawing in perspective.

Representation in a foreshortened mode or way.

nto; to; -- used with verbal substantives in -ing which begin with a consonant. This is a shortened form of the preposition an (which was used before the vowel sound); as in a hunting, a building, a begging. "Jacob, when he was a dying" Heb. xi. 21. "We'll a birding together." " It was a doing." Shak. "He burst out a l…

To make briefer; to shorten; to abridge; to reduce by contraction or omission, especially of words written or spoken. It is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. Bacon.

Shortened; relatively short; abbreviate.

The act of shortening, or reducing.

One who abbreviates or shortens.

Serving or tending to abbreviate; shortening; abridging.

To make shorter; to shorten in duration; to lessen; to diminish; to curtail; as, to abridge labor; to abridge power or rights. "The bridegroom . . . abridged his visit." Smollett. She retired herself to Sebaste, and abridged her train from state to necessity. Fuller.

An epitome or compend, as of a book; a shortened or abridged form; an abbreviation. Ancient coins as abridgments of history. Addison.

To; at; on; -- in OF. shortened to a-. See Ad-.

Shortened forms of Alcoholate.

(Now heard only in the prep. phrase along of.) Along of, Along on, often shortened to Long of, prep. phr., owing to; on account of. [Obs. or Low. Eng.] "On me is not along thin evil fare." Chaucer. "And all this is long of you." Shak. "This increase of price is all along of the foreigners." London Punch.…

d to, contrary, or in place of; -- used in composition in many English words. It is often shortened to ant-; as, antacid, antarctic.

Shortened by dropping a letter or a syllable from the beginning of a word; as, an aphetic word or form. -- A*phet"ic*al*ly, adv. New Eng. Dict.

To shorten by aphesis. These words . . . have been aphetized. New Eng. Dict.

Shortened by apocope; as, an apocopate form.