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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Short \Short\, adjective [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}, noun, and To sell short, under {Short}, adverb
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.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
30 Moby Thesaurus words for "shorter": abated, ablated, attenuated, bated, belittled, consumed, contracted, curtailed, decreased, deflated, diminished, dissipated, dropped, eroded, fallen, less, lesser, lower, lowered, miniaturized, reduced, retrenched, scaled-down, shorn, shrunk, shrunken, smaller, watered-down, weakened, worn
From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:
Shorter, AL (town, FIPS 70128) Location: 32.40075 N, 85.93661 W Population (1990): 461 (173 housing units) Area: 4.5 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 36075
From U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000) [gaz-place]:
Shorter, AL -- U.S. town in Alabama Population (2000): 355 Housing Units (2000): 133 Land area (2000): 1.722627 sq. miles (4.461584 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 1.722627 sq. miles (4.461584 sq. km) FIPS code: 70128 Located within: Alabama (AL), FIPS 01 Location: 32.401397 N, 85.943326 W ZIP Codes (1990): 36075 Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs. Headwords: Shorter, AL Shorter
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