cut short

Idioms and Phrases

Abbreviate, stop abruptly, as in The thunderstorm cut short our picnic , or She cut her short, saying she'd already heard the story of their breakup . Shakespeare used this term to mean “put a sudden end to someone's life”: “Rather than bloody war shall cut them short” ( 2 Henry VI , 4:4), a less common usage today. The broader usage dates from the mid-1600s.

Related Words

• abort
• break off
• curtail
• halt
• hinder
• interrupt
• postpone
• quit
• shorten
• terminate