foreshorten
Americanverb (used with object)
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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.
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to abridge, reduce, or contract; make shorter.
verb
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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
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to make shorter or more condensed; reduce or abridge
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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foreshortensimple
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foreshortenssimple
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have foreshortenedperfect
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has foreshortenedperfect
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am foreshorteningprogressive
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are foreshorteningprogressive
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is foreshorteningprogressive
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have been foreshorteningperfect progressive
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has been foreshorteningperfect progressive
Past
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foreshortenedsimple
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had foreshortenedperfect
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was foreshorteningprogressive
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were foreshorteningprogressive
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had been foreshorteningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of foreshorten
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.
Vocabulary lists containing foreshorten
Visual Arts - High School
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Art History
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Visual Arts - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
If there were reasons to foreshorten the mission, however, they were apparently not medical.
From Time Magazine Archive
His use of telephoto lenses to foreshorten perspective is so expert that it is often unnoticeable.
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 Parkhurst, Daniel Burleigh
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 Singleton, Esther
But this same Welsh peasant, who thus forgets and foreshortens recent history, always remembers that there were kings of Wales once.
From The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19 by Morris, Kenneth
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 Hawthorne, Julian
In the “Fair in Piazza S. Marco” the arch from under which the Fair appears is gigantic, and he foreshortens the wing of the royal palace.
From The Venetian School of Painting by Phillipps, Evelyn March
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 Cameron, Agnes Deans
She has foreshortened arms and legs, with one digit on each hand.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2025
But that version of the story has been so foreshortened that I think it skips over the most significant facts, not to mention the unanswered questions.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2023
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
At night, a child’s agonized, animalistic moans reverberate through the house, the sounds explained by Patrick as a result of their son’s speech defect: a foreshortened tongue.
From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2022
I saw Estraven come out of the house onto the street below me, a dark foreshortened figure in the even, vague gray-white of the snow.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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
As we grow older we are less likely to be seduced by fanciful ideas of what our foreshortening future might have to offer.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 15, 2020
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
Finally, in a full-page illustration with dramatic foreshortening, Spider-Man lifts the machinery off and extricates himself: “From out of the pain — from out of the agony — comes triumph!”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 7, 2018
They kneeled between the frescoed walls, where some important-looking saints with blue haloes were standing on tiptoe to avoid foreshortening, and the gay paints of the stained-glass window poured upon their heads.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
