shortening

[shawrt-ning, shawr-tn-ing]

noun

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.

shortening

/ ˈʃɔːtənɪŋ /

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of shortening¹

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

Example Sentences

Since the reactor is continually producing radiation, shortening their time near it reduces the amount of radiation workers are likely to absorb.

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“Our tracking shows continued shortening in lead time in all models and markets, with only a few exceptions,” he wrote on Monday.

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Factors like smoking, chronic stress, and depression can speed up this shortening process, while inflammation in the body also contributes to it.

Read more on Science Daily

The new kickoff rule is giving teams better field position, shortening the field for offenses that need to score in a pinch.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

While many are moving towards two-week autumn half-terms, most of these are shortening the summer holiday by a week to compensate.

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