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• short order
  short order

  noun

  a dish or serving of food that is quickly prepared upon request at a lunch counter.
• short-order
  short-order

  adjective

  of, relating to, or specializing in short orders.

short order

¹ American  

noun

1. a dish or serving of food that is quickly prepared upon request at a lunch counter.

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short-order ² American  

[shawrt-awr-der] / ˈʃɔrtˌɔr dər /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or specializing in short orders.

   a short-order cook; short-order diner.

2. performed or supplied quickly.

   They obtained a short-order divorce decree.

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short order British  

noun

1. 1. food that is easily and quickly prepared

   2. ( as modifier )

      short-order counter

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short order Idioms  

1. Quickly; see in short order .

2. An order of food to be prepared and served quickly, as in It's just a diner, serving short orders exclusively . This expression, dating from about 1890, gave rise to the adjective short-order , used not only in short-order cook , a cook specializing in short orders, but in other terms such as short-order divorce , a divorce quickly obtained owing to liberal divorce laws.

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Etymology

Origin of short order¹

First recorded in 1890–95

Origin of short-order²

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

short order short-order

Investors have calculated that rational decision-making by world leaders will prevail in short order.

From Barron's ● May 1, 2026

More often than not historically, above-average real rates have been followed in fairly short order by lower nominal rates.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 8, 2026

Banks might have to make hard decisions in short order.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026

Had he simply fought Fox’s complaint the right way, he may well have defeated the charges in short order.

From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2026

In short order, telegrams began to rattle out of Dix’s office to the chambers of commerce of every city, town, and hamlet in the state.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Guests can build their own plates, and I don’t have to spend the evening playing short-order cook.

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026

In 1966, Duncan was working as a short-order cook at the Sahara, making 400 salads an hour, when she slipped on spilled grease, severely injuring her shoulder, hip and back.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026

At the time, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology grad still lived with his parents — a Mexican-born housekeeper and a short-order cook — in Pacoima.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2025

Sole-Smith tries not to be a short-order cook.

From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2024

They were started by door-to-door salesmen, short-order cooks, orphans, and dropouts, by eternal optimists looking for a piece of the next big thing.

From "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser