short - meaning, examples in English

adjective “short”

 short, comparative shorter, superlative shortest

small in length or height
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She bought a short dress for the summer party.
not tall
Despite being the shortest in her class, she was the fastest runner.
not lasting for much time
The movie was surprisingly short, lasting only about an hour.
concise
She wrote a short story for her English class.
not enough in amount
The hospital was in a short supply of masks during the pandemic.
(followed by "of") not having enough of
The report was short of details, making it difficult to understand the full scope of the project.
(followed by "for") constituting an abbreviation
"Vet" is short for "veterinarian".
profitable if market prices fall
He was short on tech stocks, betting they would fall in the next quarter.

 short, shorter, shortest

(used with verbs like "cut" or "stop") sooner than expected
The meeting was cut short, surprising everyone with its brevity.
not far enough
He threw the pass short, missing the receiver by several feet.

 singular short, plural shorts or uncountable

an electrical malfunction
The power outage was caused by a short in the electrical system.
a brief movie
Before the main feature, the audience was treated to a hilarious animated short about a mischievous cat.
a small measure of liquor
After dinner, he ordered a short of rum to cap off the meal.
a type of small-sized integer in computing
In our code, we used shorts to store the ages of users since we didn't expect any values over 30,000.

 infinitive short; he shorts; past tense shorted; past part. shorted; ger. shorting

to cause an electrical malfunction
Spilling water on the electrical outlet accidentally shorted the entire system.
to bet on a decrease in prices by selling borrowed securities
John decided to short the company's stock, betting that its value would drop after the disappointing earnings report.

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