Idioms for short
Origin of short
before 900; Middle English
schort (adj.), Old English
sceort; cognate with Old High German
scurz short, Old Norse
skortr shortness, scarcity
SYNONYMS FOR short
4
Short,
brief are opposed to
long, and indicate slight extent or duration.
Short may imply duration but is also applied to physical distance and certain purely spatial relations:
a short journey.
Brief refers especially to duration of time:
brief intervals.
5 terse, succinct, laconic, condensed.
6 curt, sharp, testy.
7 poor, deficient, inadequate, wanting, lacking.
12 crumbly.
14 brachycephalic.
OTHER WORDS FROM short
short·ness, noun o·ver·short, adjective o·ver·short·ness, noun un·short, adjectiveWords nearby short
shoreward,
shoreweed,
shorewood,
shoring,
shorn,
short,
short account,
short and sweet,
short ballot,
short bill,
short bone
British Dictionary definitions for short and sweet
See also
shorts
Derived forms of short
shortness, nounWord Origin for short
Old English
scort; related to Old Norse
skortr a lack,
skera to cut, Old High German
scurz short
Idioms and Phrases with short and sweet (1 of 2)
short and sweet
Satisfyingly brief and pertinent, as in When we asked about the coming merger, the chairman's answer was short and sweet—it wasn't going to happen. This expression was already proverbial in 1539, when it appeared in Richard Taverner's translation of Erasmus's Adagia. Over the years it was occasionally amplified, as in James Kelly's Scottish Proverbs (1721): “Better short and sweet than long and lax.”
Idioms and Phrases with short and sweet (2 of 2)
short