Crossword clues for shortest
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Short \Short\, a. [Compar. Shorter; superl. Shortest.] [OE. short, schort, AS. scort, sceort; akin to OHG. scurz, Icel. skorta to be short of, to lack, and perhaps to E. shear, v. t. Cf. Shirt.]
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Not long; having brief length or linear extension; as, a short distance; a short piece of timber; a short flight.
The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it.
--Isa. xxviii. 20. -
Not extended in time; having very limited duration; not protracted; as, short breath.
The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
--Chaucer.To short absense I could yield.
--Milton. Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty; as, a short supply of provisions, or of water.
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Insufficiently provided; inadequately supplied; scantily furnished; lacking; not coming up to a resonable, or the ordinary, standard; -- usually with of; as, to be short of money.
We shall be short in our provision.
--Shak. Deficient; defective; imperfect; not coming up, as to a measure or standard; as, an account which is short of the trith.
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Not distant in time; near at hand.
Marinell was sore offended That his departure thence should be so short.
--Spenser.He commanded those who were appointed to attend him to be ready by a short day.
--Clarendon. -
Limited in intellectual power or grasp; not comprehensive; narrow; not tenacious, as memory.
Their own short understandings reach No farther than the present.
--Rowe. -
Less important, efficaceous, or powerful; not equal or equivalent; less (than); -- with of.
Hardly anything short of an invasion could rouse them again to war.
--Landor. Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant; as, he gave a short answer to the question.
(Cookery) Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth; crisp; as, short pastry.
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(Metal) Brittle.
Note: Metals that are brittle when hot are called ?ot-short; as, cast iron may be hot-short, owing to the presence of sulphur. Those that are brittle when cold are called cold-short; as, cast iron may be cold-short, on account of the presence of phosphorus.
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(Stock Exchange) Engaging or engaged to deliver what is not possessed; as, short contracts; to be short of stock. See The shorts, under Short, n., and To sell short, under Short, adv.
Note: In mercantile transactions, a note or bill is sometimes made payable at short sight, that is, in a little time after being presented to the payer.
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(Phon.) Not prolonged, or relatively less prolonged, in utterance; -- opposed to long, and applied to vowels or to syllables. In English, the long and short of the same letter are not, in most cases, the long and short of the same sound; thus, the i in ill is the short sound, not of i in isle, but of ee in eel, and the e in pet is the short sound of a in pate, etc. See Quantity, and Guide to Pronunciation, [sect][sect]22, 30.
Note: Short is much used with participles to form numerous self-explaining compounds; as, short-armed, short-billed, short-fingered, short-haired, short-necked, short-sleeved, short-tailed, short-winged, short-wooled, etc.
At short notice, in a brief time; promptly.
Short rib (Anat.), one of the false ribs.
Short suit (Whist), any suit having only three cards, or less than three.
--R. A. Proctor.To come short, To cut short, To fall short, etc. See under Come, Cut, etc.
Wiktionary
a. (en-superlative of: short); least in stature, length or height.
WordNet
adj. most direct; "took the shortest and most direct route to town" [syn: short]
Usage examples of "shortest".
Then let the country give us a hundred thousand new troops in the shortest possible time, which, added to McClellan directly or indirectly, will take Richmond without endangering any other place which we now hold, and will substantially end the war.
When men are framing a supreme law and chart of government, to secure blessings and prosperity to untold generations yet to come, they use language as short and direct and plain as can be found, to express their meaning In all matters but this of slavery the framers of the Constitution used the very clearest, shortest, and most direct language.
Spilett was one of that race of indomitable English or American chroniclers, like Stanley and others, who stop at nothing to obtain exact information, and transmit it to their journal in the shortest possible time.
What is the best way, Thuvia, the shortest way out of this celestial Hades?
Not, indeed, that any more are ever likely to get here, but if they do, I warn them fairly that they will be shown the shortest way out of the country.
Gideon Spilett was one of that race of indomitable English or American chroniclers, like Stanley and others, who stop at nothing to obtain exact information, and transmit it to their journal in the shortest possible time.
It was an important question, and should be solved with the shortest possible delay.
Their shortest way was to cross the Mercy on the ice, which then covered it.
The shortest system of medical practice that I know of is the oldest, but not the worst.
I want something to turn his stomach inside out at the shortest notice.
Soviet Union can, I am convinced, be clarified in the shortest possible time if a responsible German statesman can come to Moscow himself to negotiate.
Skirting the Vale is the shortest and least traveled way to the Recluse, so naturally the dwarf would take you that way.
Searching for miles in the moonlight, he had, with eye and hand, chosen out patches of this grass, the shortest and thickest he could find, and with a pocket knife, often in pieces of only a few inches, removed the best of it and carried it home, to be fitted on the heap, and with every ministration and blandishment enticed to flourish.
But I have found that when one is embarrassed, usually the shortest way to get through with it is to quit talking or thinking about it, and go at something else.
The reports showing the superiority of this gun and projectile, both as regards range, accuracy, and execution, for field service over that of all others at the battle of Fort Donelson, leads me to request that there be furnished to the State of Illinois in the shortest time practicable seven batteries of 12-pounder calibre James rifled guns, with carriages, harness, implements, etc.