Showing results for "shortening"

• present participle of shorten.

shortening

American  

[shawrt-ning, shawr-tn-ing] / ˈʃɔrt nɪŋ, ˈʃɔr tn ɪŋ /

noun

• shortenings
  plural

1. butter, lard, or other fat, used to make pastry, bread, etc., short.

2. Phonetics. the act, process, or an instance of making or becoming short.

3. Linguistics.

   1. the act or process of dropping one or more syllables from a word or phrase to form a shorter word with the same meaning, as in forming piano from pianoforte or phone from telephone.

   2. clipped form.

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shortening British  

/ ˈʃɔːtənɪŋ /

noun

1. butter, lard, or other fat, used in a dough, cake mixture, etc, to make the mixture short

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• shortenings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of shortening

First recorded in 1535–45; shorten + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shortening shortenings

The founders’ objectives are clear: reducing onboarding costs, human-resources expense and employee-failure rates, while shortening the time recruits reach productivity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

One phrase highlighted in her research is "incompetent cervix" used to describe the shortening of the cervix that can increase risks of pregnancy loss and early birth.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

Chronic stress linked to everyday life may leave a lasting physical mark on the heart, potentially damaging cardiovascular health and shortening lifespan.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026

The Danish drugmaker is shortening its name to Novo, but it will take more than a lean rebrand to win back Wall Street.

From Barron's ● Sep. 14, 2026

By shortening the intestines and decreasing their energy consumption, cooking inadvertently opened the way to the jumbo brains of Neanderthals and Sapiens.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

“Fats and shortenings are absolutely critical to pies,” says Ernest Miller, research and development chef at Coast Packing Co., a major supplier of animal fats and shortenings for cooking, baking and frying based in Vernon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2017

Anna Wierzbicka, a linguistics professor at the Australian National University, has said the country’s love affair with such shortenings reflects cherished ideals like “mateship,” humor, informality and a dislike for “long words.”

From New York Times ● Sep. 25, 2017

“You must like to decipher lousy handwriting, shortenings and a text without punctuation. You have to know the vocabulary of the 19th century,” Kutzer said.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 2, 2017

At room temperature, the vegetable oil used to make margarine and shortenings stays in a liquid state, not the most spreadable consistency.

From Time Magazine Archive

More or less: sometimes the repetition is literal; at other times there is considerable deviation; and shortenings are frequent.

From The Pianoforte Sonata Its Origin and Development by J. S. (John South) Shedlock