short adj.1
1. of an individual, impoverished, out of cash.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Eastward Ho! V i: And I not able to relieve her, neither, being kept so short by my husband. | |
| Constant Couple II v: I am very short... at present. | |
| Satirist (London) 26 May 5/3: ‘Could you oblige me with a few pounds,’ asked Tom Moore from his friend Hook, ‘for I am rather short’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. IV 34: I’m rather short just now – had to give my mother a hundred this evening, for rent! | |
| Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 180: I’m very short; please to send me two ponies. | |
| Putnam’s Mag. Apr. n.p.: A common practice is to withhold a little of a poor sewing-girl’s pay from week to week, on the plea of being short, and when a handsome aggregate has been reached, to boldly deny the debt. | |
| Appleton’s Journal (N.Y.) 30 Apr. 497/2: The ‘Golden Rule’ struck them as an altogether impossible kind of precept [...] especially when one was ‘stuck and short’. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 Dec. 2/3: Britishers [...] think all they have to do is to run over, fill their sack with dollars and go back home to enjoy them. [...] The Langtry was sent here to recoup when the Prince was short. | |
| Fast and Loose III 259: I was never so short. | |
| Star (Canterbury) 19 Oct. 2/1: ‘Kim’ bing naturally ‘a little short’ just now. | |
| ‘The Candid Man’ 🎵 Well, she was a decent sort, An’ knowin’ I was short, She didn’t mind cuttin’ ex’s down. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Aus. Sl. Dict. 73: Short, hard up. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/7: It’s not because I’m ‘short,’ / For my ‘sky’s’ not light. | |
| Maison De Shine 73: I’m a little short to-day, ladies. | |
| Truth (Perth) 18 Feb. 8/6: She did crack that she was short, / Saying that the joss who run her, / Never slung it, as he ought. | |
| ‘Life on Broadway’ in McClure’s Mag. Dec. 178/1: A man demeans himself by actin’ short with the help when he’s with a lady. | |
| ‘The Water Cure’ in Gullible’s Travels 166: Here, though, was Bess back in town and Old Man Short makin’ up to her again. | |
| Chicago May (1929) 166: He gave me a hundred marks when I told him I was short and wanted to borrow only that small amount. | |
| Decade 246: I’m a bit short tonight. | |
| Caught (2001) 73: Per’aps ’e kept ’er short, you know, stinted. | |
| Tomboy (1952) 89: Have you got any money on you? I’m short. | |
| Caretaker Act I: Oh well ... now, mister, if you want the truth ... I’m a bit short. | |
| Family Arsenal 89: We’ll settle up. Now don’t leave yourself short. | |
| Rat on Fire (1982) 92: You wouldn’t happen to have that fifty I loaned you, would you? I’m a little short tonight. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | My Traitor’s Heart (1991) 73: [...] always short because he pissed away his wages in the shebeens. | |
| Penguin Bk of More Aus. Jokes 220: I’m a bit short at the moment, Pete. Could you lend me a cent? | |
| Robbers (2001) 328: Probably walked off from folding money, too, when he was already short, only a tenspot. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 81: I borrowed money [...] I was short and he puts it out. |
2. insufficient, esp. of money; thus short bread, not enough cash.
| Discoveries (1774) 8: But Money being short there, we carried it to B---grove [...] to G---e T--ll, a Shopkeeper there, and Tobin sold it to him. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 497: A very good church-going youth, / Of th’ Catechize could read some part, / But to his dad and mammy’s grief, / Was very short in his Belief. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | in Boswell Life (1906) II 365: Nay, my dear lady, don’t talk so. Mr. Long’s character is very short. It is nothing. | |
| ‘The Man About Town’ in Nobby Songster 23: My tin run short, and you may guess, I soon was out of that. | |
| Paved with Gold 344: He asked how much tin was given? and when the knowing Jack purposely understated the sum, he remarked, ‘That’s short earnings.’. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. 229: A conductor of an omnibus, or any other servant, is said to be short, when he does not give all the money he receives to his master. |
 | Dangerous Classes of NY 205: I told the boy to call on me for whatever he was short, and he did so on two occasions. | |
| Artie (1963) 29: Next day they had to make a hot touch for a short coin so as to get the price of a couple o’ sinkers and a good old ‘draw one’. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘A Mother’ Dubliners (1956) 144: This is four shillings short. | |
| Moleskin Joe 74: I’ve done a short tucker stretch for three weeks, and so I’m chancin’ my arm on Glencorrie, for a wee while. | |
| Yellow Peril in Hatch & Hamalian Lost Plays of Harlem Renaissance (1996) 52: Here! what does this mean? You’re five dollars short. | |
| Indiscreet Guide to Soho 31: ‘Awfully short these things,’ he remarked [...] ‘My tobacconist hoards them, you know, for his pet customers.’. | |
| End as a Man (1952) 176: He slowly counted the bills, then looked up. ‘Bud, you’re short!’. | |
| Howard Street 119: I ain’t never even come to you short, I pay with the full five bills. | |
| Dopefiend (1991) 44: Hoping in his heart that they were short. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 136: You cain’t keep it together if you bread too short. | |
| On the Stroll 110: Lana wouldn’t have dared go home short; her man would think she was stashing money for herself or taking time off the job. | |
| ‘Rappin’ with Russell’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 48: Unfortunately the brothers had a shaky reputation and short bread. | |
| ‘Bitches Ain’t Shit’ 🎵 Bitch can’t hang with the streets, she found herself short. | |
| ‘Prince Among Thieves’ 🎵 He come up short, I’m gonna smoke him. | |
| ‘Crimes in Southern Indiana’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] Angel questioned him about coming up short; the higher-ups had questions. | |
| Straight Dope [ebook] — She’s twenty short. [...] somebody gonna have to come up with the twenty dollars. |
3. of banknotes, in large denominations [orig. cashiers’ jargon; large denominations mean fewer notes, which take a shorter time to count].
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 213: Short [...] A similar phrase is used at the counters of banks; upon presenting a cheque, the clerk asks, ‘How will you take it?’ i.e., in gold, or notes. Should it be desired to receive it in as small a compass as possible, the answer is, ‘short’. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 17/3: A sleepy-looking bushman entered the bank with a £900 cheque. ‘How will ye ’ave it?’ ‘Short!’ And short it was. | |
| Houndsditch Day by Day 29: The customers, blasé of boodle, who took it ‘short’ and with gloved hands. |
4. (US prison) of a prisoner, having only a few weeks or days of a sentence to serve.
| ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 27/1: GET-UP. The morning of one’s release. Boy, I only got sixty-seven more days an’ a get-up —I’m gettin’ short fer fair! | |
| ‘Convicts’ Jargon’ in AS VI:6 441: short, adj. Nearing the day of release. ‘Believe it or not, I’m getting short again, and will be out this time next year.’. | |
| Und. Speaks 45/1: Getting short, near the end of a prison sentence (prison). | |
| et al. DAUL 192/2: Short, a. (P) Approaching the end of one’s prison term. | |
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 301: I had ‘shortitis’—the impatience which makes the last few weeks unbearably long. [Ibid.] 303: I’m so short now I can taste the street. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 90: Me and the Horse were cutting you up last night. He said you were short. | |
| Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 267: The inmate’s papers are his documents dealing with his parole application which, when approved, makes him short. | |
| Prison Sl. 28: Short may be used to indicate a person has served the majority of his sentence and is near his release date. | |
| Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Short: (1) To be near the end of a sentence. | |
| Random Family 239: Jessica’s roommates were ‘getting short’ – their release dates were approaching. |
5. (drugs) of an injection, weak.
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore 166: Short beer [...] Short go [...] Short order – a smaller-than-usual dose of narcotics. |
6. (US milit.) near the end of a term of duty, spec. the twelve-month tours of Vietnam.
| One to Count Cadence (1987) 130: I’m so short I can sleep in a matchbox. | |
| Army Reporter Feb. in Maledicta VI:1+2 251: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for I am the meanest motherfucker in the valley. Short! she adds by way of amen. | |
| (con. c.1970) Short Timers (1985) 155: I’m so short that every time I put on my socks I blindfold myself. | |
| Nam (1982) 91: When I got short – when you’re under seventy-five days or so, you’re starting to be a short-timer – my platoon commander gave me a jive job sending me to the rear [...] to get the mail. | |
| Words of the Vietnam War 465: Troops kept track of the date on special calendars, and some ‘short’ troops carried a short carved stick (similar to a swagger stick) on which they notched each passing day. | |
| (con. 1969) Suicide Charlie 108: Stan was getting short by then, and we had been discussing who should replace him as squad leader. |
7. (drugs) in insufficient quantity for the money paid.
| Corner (1998) 64: The packages started coming up short. | |
| Inside 78: Jimmy, you bastard — you owe me. You’re short. |
In compounds
1. (US drugs) short measure on a drug deal; a weak injection.
| Opium Addiction in Chicago 203: Short go. A small amount of drugs for the money. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 207: short go A weak injection of a narcotic. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore 166: Short beer [...] Short go [...] Short order – a smaller-than-usual dose of narcotics. | |
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 229: short go [...] (2) short weight from the pusher’s supplier. |
2. a shortage of drugs.
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 202: There was a short go of heroin on account of some big wheeler-dealer with millions of dollars’ worth of the stuff had gotten himself busted and this caused a bad shortage. | |
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 229: short go (1) a shortage. |
(US campus) one who cannot hold their drink.
| Wisconsin State Jrnl 17 Jan. 1-2: The guy or girl who comes close in passing out after only two or three glasses of beer is called a ‘short-hitter’. |
badly supplied, wanting.
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 39: You’re short as my hair on knowing just what life really means. | |
| Neon Wilderness (1986) 249: The sailor was long on money and short on leave. | |
| From Bondage 387: They were short on brains. | |
| Observer Screen 9 Apr. 6: When it’s a book as short on plot and long on atmosphere as High Fidelity. |
(US drugs) a purported ounce of a narcotic that has in fact been shaved or otherwise reduced.
| ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 126/1: short piece. An ‘ounce’ or bindle of narcotics, especially morphine and cocaine, which has been shaved with a razor blade or otherwise reduced before it reaches the addict. | |
| ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in AS XIII:3 190/2: short. Var. of short-piece. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore. |
a short measure used to cheat drinkers in a tavern; also attrib.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: short-pots false, cheating Potts used at Ale-houses, and Brandy-shops. | |
| London Terraefilius I 8: He staggers Home [...] and becomes a Generous Cully to his Short-pot Landlady. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
(US milit.) a piece of paper currency, autographed and dated by those who were present at the holder’s first overseas flight; as the holder took different flights new pieces of local currency, duly autographed, were added; thus the individual who held such a note or collection.
| Men on Bataan 10: To be a Short Snorter you had to have a ticket - a dollar bill with Short Snorter Harry or Short Snorter Bill or Short Snorter Whatsyourname on it . To get a ticket you had to sit down with at least three Short Snorters. | |
| ‘The Short Snorter War Menace’ in Once there was a War (2007) n.p.: It became the custom then for the crew of the airplane to sign their names on a one-dollar bill which made the new ocean flyer a Short Snorter. | |
| Oracle 211: There were [. . .] photographs:[. . .] he was posed with Eddie Rickenbacker, signing a short-snorter. | |
| China Airlift 12: When asked at a bar if you had your Short Snorter and you failed to produce it, you had to pay for a round of drinks! |
the state of (temporary) poverty.
| Sportsman 2 May 2/2: Notes on News [...] To gentlemen ‘in Short-Street’ who want a loan, and fancy they are likely to find anything better than shameless extortioners in most of the loan advertising fraternity [etc]. | |
| Myra Gray 111: ‘Between ourselves, I’m in Short Street.’ ‘You’re extravagant, Hardman,’ said Gilbert Ferrers, with a look of pitying virtue; ‘d—d extravagant’. | |
| Quinney’s Adventures 188: ‘Well, he’s in Short Street. If a monkey was dangled in front of him, he’d take it, and we shouldn't see his heels for dust’. |
In phrases
(US drugs) buying drugs without paying the full price.
| Drama City 234: The walk-up fiends trying to buy [crack] on the short. |
(US) to run out of money.
| Lantern (N.O.) 9 July 3: Please send me two dollars; I run short. | |
| ‘A Derby Bet’ Sporting Times 28 May 1/4: If one man desires to be honest, and t’other man’s bank’s running short; / Well, a hundred odd’s not to be sneezed at. |
(US black) to be out of cash, to be impoverished.
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 15: I’m suffering with the shorts. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US) a small, rare-cooked steak.
| Tacoma Times (WA) 2 Nov. 3/5: A ‘short and sweet’ denotes a small steak, blood rare. |
see separate entry.
see separate entries.
see under bit n.1
(US Und.) a thug.
| N.-Y. Daily Times 13 Jan. 6/4: The Court room, as usual, was crowded with ‘short boys,’ gamblers and loafers, who seemed to take much interest in the proceedings. | |
| Essex Standard 18 Feb. 4/7: An American paper says this phalanx consisted chiefly of ‘the dead rabbit, the plug-uglies [...] and the short-boys’. | |
| Congressional Record 12 Apr. 2327/1: We should protect the ballot-box from violence, [...] from the ‘short boys’ and ‘dead rabbits’ of this country [DA]. |
see stingy-brim n.
(N.Z. prison) to hide contraband between the buttocks rather than inserting it into the rectum.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 166/1: short charge v. to hide contraband by cheeking it, rather than inserting it into the rectum. |
to circumcise.
| Sporting Times 25 Mar. 1/3: ‘Has your little boy been short-coated yet?’ asked the light-haired lady of the dark one. ‘Not yet. The Rabbi is away on his holidays,’ was the unexpected answer. |
see separate entries.
(drugs) a short measure; also attrib.
| Junkie (1966) 26: They were looking for Jack. He had given them short count in some deal. | |
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 229: short count A short weight of a drug given by a supplier to a pusher for resale to the addict, the object being to cheat the pusher. | |
| Ringolevio 43: Kenny put together a short-count dime paper. | |
| Corner (1998) 323: No slinking [...] no palming a few vials and hoping against hope that the short-count doesn’t get noticed. |
see short strokes n.
(orig. US black, also short-dog bottle) a small bottle of cheap alcohol, usu. wine; also attrib.
| ‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2 42: Short dog, n. Cheap wine. | |
| Onion Field 60: [N]umerous liquor stores stock more Sneaky Pete and Sweet Lucy than the rest of metropolitan Los Angeles combined, most of it in short dog bottles which the derelicts can afford. | |
| Choirboys (1976) 137: He [...] shoplifted a short dog of wine. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 187: My father [...] has this ol’ wino friend he’s been knowin’ for years that sit on the corner. So, everytime it’s his birthday, he go buy ’im a short dog – a little bottle of wine. | |
| Homeboy 19: Pete the Packrat extracted a shortdog of wine from the shopping cart filled with trash attached to his Dalmatian bitch. | |
| Night People 129: At least two dozen black men [...] drinking from or holding in one hand a short dog in a brown paper sack. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 90: He hit a liquor store. He bought sixty short dogs. | |
| ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 311: Palsied pensioners toked Tokay in short-dog bottles. | |
| I, Fatty 38: Emboldened by a half-full short dog of rye. | |
| Drawing Dead [ebook] I finished the rotgut [i.e. whisky] in the car [...] It was only a shortdog. | |
| Happy Mutant Baby Pills 231: Nora liked to pull out her short dog of Old Mr Boston and pour a slug into her Starbucks. | |
| Widespread Panic 27: [B]uying stale bread and short dogs of muscatel. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 43: [T]welve pill vials and two vodka short dogs. |
see separate entry.
see under stick n.
(US prison) a child molester.
| Newsweek 8 Apr. 81: For the cons the supreme sin is to be a ‘short eyes’—a sexual molester of children. | |
| After Hours 104: Now he teams up with the short-eyes. | |
| London Fields 80: The child-molester – the nonce, the short eyes – was the lowest of the low. | |
| Trainspotting 148: Stoat the baw, they call it [...] Sex Criminal. Child Rapist. Nonce. Short-eyes. | |
| Under A Hoodoo Moon 120: Fucking up some child’s life didn’t go down well with the old-timers [...] One way they’d dispatch a short-eye was to put a mop wringer through his head like a busted watermelon, which branded them six-by-six. | |
| (con. 1986) Sweet Forever 5: Murphy had seen [...] a bad-ass prison picture called Short Eyes back in ’77. | |
| Mr Blue 324: Its patients were under commitment as ‘mentally disordered sex offenders,’ commonly known as pedophiles or child molesters, and in convict parlance ‘short eyes’. | |
| Night Gardener 172: Inside the Federal joint, he’s marked as a short eyes. | |
| (con. 1980s) Skagboys 512: The radge jis looked like a fuckin short-eyes n aw, hud stoat written aw ower um. | |
| OG Dad 166: Maybe it was AT&T itself who asked for the Short Eyes slant. No doubt to appeal to all the crusty old sex tourists who spend big money on Cambodian child rape vacations. | |
| Border [ebook] If Zuniga knew he had a short-eyes on his yard and didn’t do something about it, he would lose massive respect. |
(orig. US) a short temper.
| N.Y. Times 13 Oct. 4:10: Tully, a fellow notorious around Sausalito for his short fuse. | |
| Atlantic Monthly June 12: He has a temper and is known to the Washington press corps variously as ‘testy,’ ‘peevish,’ and ‘living on the edge of resentment’. But aides say he carries the short fuse in his pocket. | |
| Union Dues (1978) 149: ‘You got a lousy temper, Dawm.’ ‘I got a shawt fuse is all. I boil over easy.’. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 187: short fuse/wick Quick tempered. |
a convict, esp. a new one.
| Killing Time 176: Then Capt. Brinkley goes on back to the Judy hole to butcher up some more of the short hairs. |
see separate entry.
see separate entry.
see separate entry.
a newcomer, an innocent.
| Texas Cow Boy (1950) 45: Mr. Black was a Kansas ‘short horn’. | |
| Outing (N.Y.) Nov. 129/2: Besides a few snipe killed at a swamp called by Shorthorns ‘cineky,’ from the Spanish sienica, we still depended upon Uncle Sam’s subsistence stores for our daily bread [DA]. | |
| Wolfville 28: It has been a question with me [....] how this old shorthorn and his girl manages for to make out. | |
| Road 173: Gay-cats are short-horns, chechaquos, new chums, or tenderfeet. | |
| Bucky O’Connor (1910) 97: That shorthorn in chaps and a yellow bandana. | |
| ‘Flush of Gold’ Complete Short Stories (1993) II 1293: Anybody could do him, the latest short-horn in camp could lie his last dollar out of him. | |
| ‘Above the Law’ in Coll. Stories (1994) 38: Are we goin’ to act like a bunch of short horns? | |
| Long Trail from Texas 117: You pimple-faced, milk-fed shorthorn, why don’t ya go back to Kansas where ya belong? | |
| Western Words (1968) 143/1: shorthorn One not native to the cattle country, a tenderfoot [DA]. | |
| (con. 1920s–40s) in Rebel Voices. |
a short person.
| Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 176: ‘Hullo shorthouse,’ she said ruffling his hair. | |
| Indep. Rev. 17 June 5: Our centres of gravity are too high for a game which privileges short-houses. | |
| in Jack of Jumps (2007) 154: A short-house in built-up shoes. |
see cheap john n.2
(Scot.) a glass of brandy.
| Glasgow Citizen 19 Nov. n.p.: Is not the exhilarating short-length of brandy known beyond our own Queen Street? [F&H]. |
short-tempered.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
see separate entry.
(W.I.) verbally agile, good at snappy repartee.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Jam. Song and Story 4: Negro. Short-mout’ed . English. Quick at repartee. |
(US black) an unkempt, unattractive woman, esp. with messy hair.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 144: Synonyms for chickenhead are [...] hen, thunder chicken, nail head and short nails. |
(US) a .38 revolver, which has a short barrel.
| Down These Mean Streets (1970) 16: You’d smack him down like Whiplash does in the cowboy flick or really light him up like Scarface in that gangster picture—swoon, crack, bang, bang, bang, short-nose, snub-nose pistol, and a machine gun, and a poor fuckin’ loudmouth is laid out. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 49: If you had let me go for the short-nose. |
(US) to mistreat, to trick someone; thus short-sheeting n.
| ‘Vocab. for Lakes, [etc.]’ AS XIX:2 110: Short-sheeting is a general term used in connection with practical joking of whatever character. | |
| , | | DAS. |
(US black) a very short time, very soon.
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 lay it on someone’s hip Definition: to page someone Example: Yo G., I’ll lay one on yo hip in a short short. |
see separate entries.
see separate entry.
see separate entry.
1. a short person.
| Mad mag. Apr. 14: Get lost, short-stuff! |
2. (US Und.) a quick and spontaneous con trick, thought up on the spur of the moment and workable only while the target is on hand.
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
see separate entries.
(US black) a short walk.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
285ml (½ pint) of coffee.
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
(US black) a girl or woman with bobbed hair.
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 1 Feb. 16: ‘Shortwave’ isn’t a radio, it’s [...] a bobbed-haired chippie! |
see separate entries.
see short fuse
In phrases
(US gay) see cit. 1972.
| Queens’ Vernacular 22: A drunk sailor leaned up against an alley wall and quickly sucked off is a short-order shrimp. |
(US juv.) a juvenile court.
| Teen-Age Gangs 228: The Adolescents’ Court is known among the youths as the ‘lollypop’ or ‘short pants’ court. |