verb (used with object)
- to make short or shorter.
- to reduce, decrease, take in, etc.: to shorten sail.
- to make (pastry, bread, etc.) short, as with butter or other fat.
- Sports. choke(def 8).
verb (used without object)
verb
- to make or become short or shorter
- (tr) nautical to reduce the area of (sail)
- (tr) to make (pastry, bread, etc) short, by adding butter or another fat
- gambling to cause (the odds) to lessen or (of odds) to become less
1510s, “make shorter;” 1560s, “grow shorter,” from short (adj.) + -en (1); the earlier form of the verb was simply short, from Old English sceortian “to grow short, become short; run short, fail,” gescyrtan “to make short.”