foreshorten

American  

[fawr-shawr-tn, fohr-] / fɔrˈʃɔr tn, foʊr- /

verb (used with object)

• foreshortens,
  present (3rd person singular)
• foreshortened,
  past participle,  past
• foreshortening
  present participle

1. Fine Arts. to reduce or distort (parts of a represented object that are not parallel to the picture plane) in order to convey the illusion of three-dimensional space as perceived by the human eye: often done according to the rules of perspective.

2. to abridge, reduce, or contract; make shorter.

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foreshorten British  

/ fɔːˈʃɔːtən /

verb

1. to represent (a line, form, object, etc) as shorter than actual length in order to give an illusion of recession or projection, in accordance with the laws of linear perspective

2. to make shorter or more condensed; reduce or abridge

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unforeshortened
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• foreshortening
  present
• foreshortened
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• foreshorten
  simple
• foreshortens
  simple
• have foreshortened
  perfect
• has foreshortened
  perfect
• am foreshortening
  progressive
• are foreshortening
  progressive
• is foreshortening
  progressive
• have been foreshortening
  perfect progressive
• has been foreshortening
  perfect progressive

Past

• foreshortened
  simple
• had foreshortened
  perfect
• was foreshortening
  progressive
• were foreshortening
  progressive
• had been foreshortening
  perfect progressive

Future

• will foreshorten
  simple
• will have foreshortened
  perfect
• will be foreshortening
  progressive
• will have been foreshortening
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of foreshorten

First recorded in 1600–10; fore- + shorten

Explanation

When an artist foreshortens, she makes an object appear closer or a distance shorter than it is, to create a sense of depth in a painting or drawing. To foreshorten is to create a kind of optical illusion simply by making lines shorter or angling the perspective in a certain way. It's a technique used in art and design, but it's also a phenomenon you may observe in the world: "The angle from which she's looking foreshortens the mountain, making it look closer." This word dates from about 1600.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

foreshorten foreshortens foreshortened foreshortening

Mantegna exploits the new Renaissance pictorial science to dramatically foreshorten the body of Christ, showing it feet-forward in a way that emphasises the terrible reality of death.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 19, 2014

His use of telephoto lenses to foreshorten perspective is so expert that it is often unnoticeable.

From Time Magazine Archive

If there were reasons to foreshorten the mission, however, they were apparently not medical.

From Time Magazine Archive

A head-thumping, sword-swishing, bow-twanging technicolor attempt to foreshorten the popular episodes of the Soo-year-old saga into the perspective of a single connected story.

From Time Magazine Archive

After all, foreshortening is only good drawing, and a good draughtsman will foreshorten well, while a bad draughtsman will not.

From The Painter in Oil A complete treatise on the principles and technique necessary to the painting of pictures in oil colors by Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst

In the light of a vivid recollection, the long tract between fades and foreshortens, till only the Then and the Now are notable.

From Idolatry A Romance by Julian Hawthorne

Like drama which compresses the tragedy of a lifetime into a unity of time, place, and action, history foreshortens an epoch into an episode.

From A Preface to Politics by Walter Lippmann

His knowledge of anatomy is great and he foreshortens on canvas and ceiling astonishingly before the advent of Michael Angelo.

From Great Pictures, As Seen and Described by Famous Writers by Esther Singleton

The long hair hanging down from the body foreshortens the appearance of the legs and gives a quaint look to the moving herd.

From The New North by Agnes Deans Cameron

The prophet always foreshortens his revelation, and generally blends the city of God with a vision of his own country transfigured.

From Outspoken Essays by William Ralph Inge

She has foreshortened arms and legs, with one digit on each hand.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2025

Until they realize that living together, as messy as it is likely to be, is far preferable to the existential fear of foreshortened, forestalled and anxiety-filled lives recycled forever.

From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2024

The exception is Tom Sliter’s intimate close-up of two skaters’ feet and ankles, in which only foreshortened shadows disclose the existence of the full bodies beyond the frame.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 20, 2023

In 3D, there’s a dimension that’s always foreshortened to some degree, and it makes it hard to position your guy precisely in a complex environment.

From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2021

Four blurred arms cross my face and then merge into a single foreshortened limb.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

At Santa Croce, the world's largest Franciscan church, Giotto's frescoes bear witness to his innovations, including modern spatial techniques such as foreshortening and human figures imparted with a fleshy weightiness.

From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026

Lucy needs to make sense of her past, render it communicable, but she’s weary of the violent foreshortening on which narrative depends.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 30, 2019

Live-action 3-D is usually disappointing, bullying the eye and foreshortening rather than expanding the kinetic pleasure of watching bodies move through space.

From New York Times ● Oct. 9, 2011

To see the face you would have to be nearly upside down, a vertigo abetted by the extreme foreshortening of the corpse.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2011

But to fit these elements on to this wall he had to do sketches, draw converging lines, work out scales and foreshortening.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton