SHORTS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Shorts

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/ʃɔrts/ Listen

noun

Short n.

A summary account. "The short and the long is, our play is preferred."

pl. The part of milled grain sifted out which is next finer than the bran. "The first remove above bran is shorts."

pl. Short, inferior hemp.

pl. Breeches; shortclothes. (Slang)

(Phonetics) A short sound, syllable, or vowel. "If we compare the nearest conventional shorts and longs in English, as in "bit" and "beat," "not" and "naught," we find that the short vowels are generally wide, the long narrow, besides being generally diphthongic as well. Hence, originally short vowels can be lengthened and yet kept quite distinct from the original longs."

In short, in few words; in brief; briefly.

The long and the short, the whole; a brief summing up.

The shorts (Stock Exchange), those who are unsupplied with stocks which they contracted to deliver.

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Etymology of 'Shorts'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Shorts" Quotes from Famous Books

... still weak," observed one, "for all it lived through the panic. Suppose we creep in to-morrow and cover our shorts. The shares are forty-three; I for one think it might be wise to close the deal and take our losses, even if we go as ...

— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis

... "The shorts will be the speculators," Nathaniel Letton explained, "the gamblers, the froth of Wall Street—you understand. The genuine investors will not be hurt. Furthermore, they will have learned for the thousandth time to have confidence in Ward Valley. And with their ...

— Burning Daylight • Jack London

... astonishment of Squeers and his victim, as the savage goes down under the thundering blows of Nickleby's cane. Look at the old imbecile declaring his passion for the foolish Mrs. Nickleby. Behold his knee-breeches and shorts protruding from the chimney, when his benighted intellect prompted him, at the imminent hazard of strangulation, to pay a visit to the object of his affections via that unusually circuitous route. Look at the fatal brawl between Sir Mulberry Hawk and his hopeful ...

— English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. • Graham Everitt

... slowly expanded and contracted with his breathing, as do those of a spirited horse. In contrast to the gait of the white man he stepped vigorously and proudly as though the long day had not touched his strength. He wore a battered old felt hat, a tattered flannel shirt, a ragged pair of shorts, and the blue puttees issued by the British to their native troops. The straps of two canteens crossed on his breast; a full cartridge belt encircled his waist; he carried lightly and easily one of those twelve-pound double cordite rifles that ...

— The Leopard Woman • Stewart Edward White et al

... on a chair beside the bed. Stripping off his pajamas, he donned shorts, then sat down and picked up a pair of lemon-colored socks, which he regarded with disfavor. As he pulled one on, a church bell began to clang. St. Boniface, up on the hill, ringing for early Mass; so this was Sunday. He paused, the second sock in ...

— Time and Time Again • Henry Beam Piper

... so quick to the other side that I'll be there before you can take off your hat. I'm done with a Bear game. It was good while it lasted, but we've worked it for all there was in it. I'm not only going to cover my May shorts and get out of that trade, but"—Jadwin leaned forward and struck his hand upon his knee—"but I'm going to buy. I'm going to buy September wheat, and I'm going to buy it to-morrow, five hundred thousand bushels of it, and if the market goes ...

— The Pit • Frank Norris