Word.ws English Dictionary

shorten

/ˈʃɔːtn̩/US/ˈʃɔɹtn̩/

shorten verb: to make shorter; to abbreviate.

Verb

shorten (third-person singular simple present shortens, present participle shortening, simple past and past participle shortened)

  1. (transitive) To make shorter; to abbreviate.
    • York came round to our heads and shortened the rein himself, one hole I think; every little makes a difference, be it for better or worse, and that day we had a steep hill to go up.[1877], Anna Sewell, “Earlshall”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part II, page 105
    • The full title of the unified system, the South Eastern & London, Chatham & Dover Railways, was decidedly cumbersome, and for the sake of convenience was shortened to the South Eastern & Chatham Railway.1958 November, “The Why and the Wherefore: South Eastern & Chatham Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 809
  2. (intransitive) To become shorter.
  3. (transitive) To make deficient (as to); to deprive (of).
    • Spoiled of his nose, and shorten'd of his ears.1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  4. (transitive) To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, etc.
  5. (transitive) To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen.
    • to shorten an allowance of food
    • Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain.1699, John Dryden, Dedication to His Grace the Duke of Ormond
  6. (transitive) To make crumbly.
    • Corn flour makes delicious pie crust, and needs less lard to shorten it.1894, Helen M. Laughlin, The Journal of Agriculture Cook Book, Journal of Agriculture Co., page 212
  7. (transitive) To take in the slack of (a rope).
  8. (transitive) To reduce (sail) by taking it in.
  9. (dated, transitive) to dress (a baby) in a short (rather than long) gown
    • Anne and Leslie had another cry the next week when they shortened Little Jem. Anne felt the tragedy of it until evening when in his long nightie she found her own dear baby again.1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams
    • In January Jims was five months old and Rilla celebrated the anniversary by shortening him.1921, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Rilla of Ingleside

Proper noun capitalized: Shorten

Shorten (plural Shortens)

  1. A surname.

shorten meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

shorten in Hindi

to shorten, reduce, abbreviate
लघु करना laghu karnā

shorten in Tamil

to make shorter
குறுக்கு kuṟukku, சுருக்கு curukku, குறை kuṟai
to become shorter
குறுகு kuṟuku, குறை kuṟai

shorten in Urdu

گھٹنا, کم ہونا, چھوٹا کرنا, گھٹا دینا, مختصر کرنا

shorten in Bengali

খাটো করা, কমানো
More languagesFewer languages
shorten in Malayalam
കുറേക്കൂടി ചുരുക്കുക, കുറയ്ക്കുക, സംക്ഷേപിക്കുക, ക്ഷയിപ്പിക്കുക
shorten in Gujarati
ટૂંકો પાડવો, ટૂંકી કરો
shorten in Assamese
চুটি কৰা suti kora, চাপৰ কৰা sapor kora, চুটি হোৱা suti hüa, চাপৰ হোৱা sapor hüa
shorten in Arabic
قَصَّرَ qaṣṣara

Examples of shorten in a sentence

  • The trunk is unbranched, often much shortened, and bears a crown of feathery or pinnate fronds.
  • After the Apollo 13 accident, the transearth injection burn shortened the return time by about 9 hours.
  • Shortened from maxiature, ultimately from Latin maximus ("large").

All 40 example sentences with shorten

Synonyms of shorten

7 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of shorten

Forms of shorten

Verb
third-person singular presentshortens
present participleshortening
past participleshortened
pastshortened
Proper noun
pluralShortens

Past tense of shorten: shortened

Origin of shorten

From Middle English shortnen, schortenen, equivalent to short + -en (verbal suffix). In some senses, a continuation (in altered form) of Middle English schorten (“to make short, shorten”), from Old English sċortian (“to become short”), from Proto-Germanic *skurtōną (“to shorten”).

Words formed from shorten

Words that rhyme with shorten

Questions about shorten

What does shorten mean?
Shorten means to make shorter; to abbreviate.
What is shorten in Hindi?
Shorten in Hindi is लघु करना (laghu karnā). See Shorten meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is shorten?
Shorten can be a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce shorten?
Shorten is pronounced /ˈʃɔːtn̩/ (UK).
What is the past tense of shorten?
The past tense of shorten is shortened.

Words near shorten in the dictionary

  1. shorted
  2. shorted down
  3. shorted out
  4. Shortell
  5. Shortells
  6. shorten
  7. shorten down
  8. shorten up
  9. shortenable
  10. shortened
  11. shortened down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shorten (page history and authors); Shorten (page history and authors); लघु करना (Hindi) (page history and authors); shorten (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shorten (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shorten (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shorten (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: “shorten.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shorten. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.