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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Abridge \A*bridge"\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Abridged}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Abridging}.] [OE. abregen, OF. abregier, F. abr['e]ger, fr. L. abbreviare; ad + brevis short. See {Brief} and cf. {Abbreviate}.]
1. 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.
2. To shorten or contract by using fewer words, yet retaining the sense; to epitomize; to condense; as, to abridge a history or dictionary.
3. To deprive; to cut off; -- followed by of, and formerly by from; as, to abridge one of his rights.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
abridge
verb: reduce in scope while retaining essential elements; "The manuscript must be shortened" [syn: {foreshorten}, {abbreviate}, {shorten}, {cut}, {contract}, {reduce}] [ant: {elaborate}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
107 Moby Thesaurus words for "abridge": abbreviate, abstract, bereave, bleed, blot out, blue-pencil, bob, boil down, bowdlerize, brief, cancel, capsule, capsulize, censor, clip, compress, condense, contract, crop, cross out, curtail, cut, cut back, cut down, cut off, cut off short, cut short, damp, dampen, decrease, deduct, deflate, delete, depreciate, depress, deprive, deprive of, digest, diminish, disentitle, divest, dock, downgrade, drain, ease one of, edit, edit out, elide, epitomize, erase, expunge, expurgate, foreshorten, kill, lessen, lighten one of, limit, lower, milk, mine, minify, minimize, mow, narrow, nip, nutshell, omit, outline, pare, poll, pollard, prune, reap, recap, recapitulate, reduce, rescind, restrict, retrench, roll back, rub out, scale down, shave, shear, shorten, simplify, sketch, sketch out, slash, snub, step down, strike, strike off, strike out, stunt, sum up, summarize, synopsize, take away from, take from, take in, tap, telescope, trim, truncate, tune down, void
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
ABRIDGE, v.t. To shorten.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to abridge their king, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Oliver Cromwell
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