Short·en v. t. [imp. & p. p. Shortened; p. pr. & vb. n. Shortening.]
 1. To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity.
 2. To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc.
    Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain.   --Dryden.
 3. To make deficient (as to); to deprive; -- with of.
    Spoiled of his nose, and shortened of his ears.   --Dryden.
 4. To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, pot liquor, or the like.
 To shorten a rope Naut., to take in the slack of it.
 To shorten sail Naut., to reduce sail by taking it in.


 shortened
      adj 1: cut short; "a sawed-off shotgun"; "a sawed-off broomstick";
             "the shortened rope was easier to use" [syn: sawed-off,
              sawn-off]
      2: cut short in duration; "the abbreviated speech"; "a
         curtailed visit"; "her shortened life was clearly the
         result of smoking"; "an unsatisfactory truncated
         conversation" [syn: abbreviated, truncated]
      3: shortened by or as if by means of parts that slide one
         within another or are crushed one into another; "a miracle
         that anyone survived in the telescoped cars"; "years that
         seemed telescoped like time in a dream" [syn: telescoped]
      4: with parts removed; "the drastically cut film" [syn: cut]