"shortened" in the verb sense

1. shorten

make shorter than originally intended reduce or retrench in length or duration

"He shortened his trip due to illness"

2. abridge, foreshorten, abbreviate, shorten, cut, contract, reduce

reduce in scope while retaining essential elements

"The manuscript must be shortened"

3. shorten

make short or shorter

"shorten the skirt"

"shorten the rope by a few inches"

4. shorten

become short or shorter

"In winter, the days shorten"

5. bowdlerize, bowdlerise, expurgate, castrate, shorten

edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate

"bowdlerize a novel"

"shortened" in the adjective sense

1. sawed-off, sawn-off, shortened

cut short

"a sawed-off shotgun"

"a sawed-off broomstick"

"the shortened rope was easier to use"

2. abbreviated, shortened, truncated

cut short in duration

"the abbreviated speech"

"her shortened life was clearly the result of smoking"

"an unsatisfactory truncated conversation"

3. telescoped, shortened

shortened by or as if by means of parts that slide one within another or are crushed one into another

"a miracle that anyone survived in the telescoped cars"

"years that seemed telescoped like time in a dream"

4. cut, shortened

with parts removed

"the drastically cut film"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.

View WordNet® License