(shôrt) adjective
1. Having little linear extension; not long; of little extent; of no great distance.
2. Being below the average stature; not tall.
3. Having little extension in time; of limited duration; brief.
4. Abrupt in manner or spirit; curt; petulant; cross.
5. Not reaching or attaining a requirement, result, or mark; deficient; inadequate; scant: often with of.
6. In finance or commerce, not having in possession when selling, but having to procure in time to deliver as contracted; not being in possession of the seller, as stocks or shares; of or pertaining to short stocks or commodities: short sales.
7. Not comprehensive or retentive; at fault; in error; narrow: said of persons or their faculties: short memory.
8. Breaking easily; friable; crisp.
9. Phonet. a Relatively brief in pronunciation: said of vowels. b Designating a set of vowel sounds which contrast with the “long” vowels. See LONG¹ (def. 9).
10. In classical prosody, requiring a relatively short time to pronounce: said of syllables containing a short vowel (epsilon, omicron, etc.) not followed by two consonants or a double consonant.
11. In English prosody, unaccented.
12. Less than: with of.
13. Concise; compressed. See synonyms under LITTLE, SCANTY, TERSE, TRANSIENT.
—noun
1. The compressed substance or pith of a matter.
2. Anything that is short; a short syllable or vowel.
3. A deficiency, as in a payment.
4. A short contract or sale; one who has sold short; a bear.
5. plural Bran mixed with coarse meal or flour.
6. plural Trousers with legs extending part way to the knees: worn by both men and women.
7. plural A man's undergarment covering the loins and often a portion of the legs.
8. In baseball slang, a shortstop.
9. plural Clippings, scraps, etc., left over in the manufacture of different products and used to make an inferior quality of the product.
10. Electr. A short circuit.
11. A motion picture of relatively short duration as compared with the feature attraction on a program.
—for short For brevity: Edward was called Ed for short.
—in short In a word; briefly.
—the short and the long The whole; the entire sum and substance.
—adverb In a short manner or method, in any sense of the adjective: to stop short, to turn short, to sell short.
—v.t. & v.i. To short-circuit. [OE sceort short]
—short′ish adjective
—short′ness noun

(shôrt), Walter Campbell,
1880–1949, U.S. general.

(shôrt′rānj′) adjective
Limited in range, distance, or time: short-range opportunities.