Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to cheat in any form of share-out or distribution, e.g. of drugs, food or attention.

1929		J.F. Dobie A Vaquero of the Brush Country 99: Somebody was almost sure to get ‘shorted’ on the guess as to the time. Frequently it was the last guard that stood the longest watch.
1935		W. Smith Bessie Cotter 20: If it was some other establishment they might short you.
1945		G. Wilhelm Never Let Me Go 91: I didn’t check my laundry last time and apparently I got shorted.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 263: We’re all hungry, buddy [...] nobody’s getting shorted.
1971		R. Woodley Dealer 8: ‘Jim you fucker I’m gonna shoot you,’ the man said, smiling. ‘Fuck you gonna shoot me. What for?’ ‘Man, you shorted me on that brick’ [Ibid.] 40: You start shortin people and you lose business or you get shot.
1993		K. Scott Monster (1994) 284: The trustees [...] were notorious for shorting everyone on food.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 79: Though Frankie now devoted much of his time to Maggie, he never shorted his other fighters, working with them daily and travelling with them when they had fights out of town.
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘You know how white folk get when they been shorted a dollar and cheated a dime’.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 63: ‘Don’t you ever, as long as you got breath in your lungs, ever let somebody short us on a deal’.

2. (US) to cheat when dividing the spoils of a robbery or of drug dealing; to underpay; cit. 2006 refers to a prostitute’s charges.

1958		H. Ellison ‘With a Knife in her Hand’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 136: The cuff links went to Pinty, and he got shorted three dollars in cash.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 210: He might get slick with the count, short us some money.
1990		M. McAlary Crack War (1991) 127: Another worker [...] had tried to short Todd $20 once.
1992		UGK ‘Trill Ass Nigga’ 🎵 See I’ve been doin this too damn long / to short my slang.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 66: No organizational ethic makes sense when everyone is shorting and getting shorted by everyone else.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 631: You actually owe me a rock [...] You shorted me that time.
2006		J. Ridley What Fire Cannot Burn 278: Her last John has shorted her and she needed some ready money to pay off her pimp.
2008		Simon & Burns ‘More with Less’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 1 [TV script] You shorted your police department budget.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 214: The old man had left himself a few singles. ‘You sure you’ll be alright? Don’t short yourself for me’.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 194: ‘Light by how much?’ ‘Fifty thousand. Either they shorted him or he shorted us’.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 4: That’s how they do it: they short you, they know they shorted you, and then they act like you’re the one who’s fucked up.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 188: ‘Lawd, he shorted y’all. That’s a damn shame’.