/shawrt"ning, shawr"tn ing/ , n.
1. butter, lard, or other fat, used to make pastry, bread, etc., short.
2. Phonet. the act, process, or an instance of making or becoming short.
3. Ling.
a. 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.
b. See clipped form .
[ 1535-45; SHORTEN + -ING 1 ]