shortening

American  

[shawrt-ning, shawr-tn-ing] / ˈʃɔrt nɪŋ, ˈʃɔr tn ɪŋ /

noun

1. butter, lard, or other fat, used to make pastry, bread, etc., short.

2. Phonetics.  the act, process, or an instance of making or becoming short.

3. Linguistics.

   1. 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.

   2. clipped form.

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shortening British  

/ ˈʃɔːtənɪŋ /

noun

1. butter, lard, or other fat, used in a dough, cake mixture, etc, to make the mixture short

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Etymology

Origin of shortening

First recorded in 1535–45; shorten + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

And keep in mind that retailers’ return policies aren’t as generous as they once were, with many stores now charging a fee and shortening the amount of time shoppers have to send items back.

From MarketWatch

As the set went on, Tyler started shortening each song, limiting himself to only a verse or a chorus to pack in more hits: “Earfquake,” “Wusyaname,” “See You Again.”

From Los Angeles Times

A second factor may be that investment horizons are shortening.

From MarketWatch

Add the butter and shortening and pulse until the butter is the size of peas.

From Salon

“Our tracking shows continued shortening in lead time in all models and markets, with only a few exceptions,” he wrote on Monday.

From MarketWatch