cut short

Idioms  

1. Abbreviate, stop abruptly, as in The thunderstorm cut short our picnic, or She cut her short, saying she'd already heard the story of their breakup. Shakespeare used this term to mean “put a sudden end to someone's life”: “Rather than bloody war shall cut them short” (2 Henry VI, 4:4), a less common usage today. The broader usage dates from the mid-1600s.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cut short

Many are anxious about the fate of their homes, while others have had their holidays abruptly cut short.

From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026

Together, they form a rich yet incomplete portrait of an existence cut short, which McElwee hopes to broaden by weaving in meaning from before and after Adrian’s life, all captured by McElwee’s omnipresent camera.

From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026

An online fundraiser said the injured passengers were Lopez’s children and described her as “a loving mother whose life was cut short far too soon.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026

His progress was cut short by the Vietnam War, and he enlisted pre-emptively in the Army in 1963, which let him pick a specialty: motion-picture combat photography.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

But after Sabrina had been born a few months ago, our space talks had always been cut short.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

Related Words

• abort
• break off
• curtail
• halt
• hinder
• interrupt
• postpone
• quit
• shorten
• terminate