CUT SHORT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cut short mean? 

• CUT SHORT (verb)
  The verb CUT SHORT has 4 senses:

1. interrupt before its natural or planned end

2. cause to end earlier than intended

3. make shorter as if by cutting off

4. terminate or abbreviate before its intended or proper end or its full extent

  Familiarity information: CUT SHORT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CUT SHORT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Interrupt before its natural or planned end

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break off; break short; cut short

Context example:

We had to cut short our vacation

Hypernyms (to "cut short" is one way to...):

break; interrupt (terminate)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cut short"):

hang up (interrupt a telephone conversation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to end earlier than intended

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The spontaneous applause cut the singer short

Hypernyms (to "cut short" is one way to...):

disrupt; interrupt (interfere in someone else's activity)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make shorter as if by cutting off

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

cut short; truncate

Context example:

Erosion has truncated the ridges of the mountains

Hypernyms (to "cut short" is one way to...):

shorten (make shorter than originally intended; reduce or retrench in length or duration)

"Cut short" entails doing...:

chop off; cut off; lop off (remove by or as if by cutting)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Terminate or abbreviate before its intended or proper end or its full extent

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

clip; curtail; cut short

Context example:

Personal freedom is curtailed in many countries

Hypernyms (to "cut short" is one way to...):

shorten (make shorter than originally intended; reduce or retrench in length or duration)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Here a general explosion of laughter cut short the 'history of salads', to the great surprise of the learned gentleman.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

That last warning cry had been suddenly cut short.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I made some attempts to draw her into conversation, but she seemed a person of few words: a monosyllabic reply usually cut short every effort of that sort.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“It may be the effect of this illness, but it seems to me that—” His words were cut short by a sudden scream of “Help! Help! Murder!”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke out from the stall which we had just left.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Involuntarily he glanced up and around to see if there were any trace of those opportune levin-flashes and thunderbolts which, in the Acta Sanctorum, were wont so often to cut short the loose talk of the scoffer.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Everything else was unchanged, the sun still shining mercilessly on the steaming marsh and the tall pinnacle of the mountain, and I could scarce persuade myself that murder had been actually done and a human life cruelly cut short a moment since before my eyes.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Both Miss Lavinia and Miss Clarissa had a superstition, however, that he would have declared his passion, if he had not been cut short in his youth (at about sixty) by over-drinking his constitution, and over-doing an attempt to set it right again by swilling Bath water.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With the Musgroves, there was the happy chat of perfect ease; with Captain Harville, the kind-hearted intercourse of brother and sister; with Lady Russell, attempts at conversation, which a delicious consciousness cut short; with Admiral and Mrs Croft, everything of peculiar cordiality and fervent interest, which the same consciousness sought to conceal; and with Captain Wentworth, some moments of communications continually occurring, and always the hope of more, and always the knowledge of his being there.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

As she spoke, Jo took off her bonnet, and a general outcry arose, for all her abundant hair was cut short.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)