Word.ws English Dictionary

short change

short change is the alternative spelling of shortchange.

Meaning of shortchange

Verb

shortchange (third-person singular simple present shortchanges, present participle shortchanging, simple past and past participle shortchanged)

  1. (transitive) To defraud (someone) by giving them less change than they should be given after a transaction.
    • I got shortchanged! I gave him $10 for a $5 item and he only gave me $1 back.
  2. (broadly, transitive) To deprive (someone or something) of something due; to treat unfairly; to cheat, deceive; to half-ass.
    • The elective class was easy, but in the end I was shortchanging myself by taking it.

Forms of short change

third-person singular presentshort changes
present participleshort changing
past participleshort changed
pastshort changed

Questions about short change

What is short change the alternative spelling of?
Short change is the alternative spelling of shortchange.

Words near short change in the dictionary

  1. short bowel syndrome
  2. short break
  3. short breaks
  4. short bus
  5. short buses
  6. short change
  7. short changed
  8. short changes
  9. short changing
  10. short ciliary nerve
  11. short circuit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: short change (page history and authors); shortchange (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “short change.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/short_change. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.