English · Idiom Historical

to cut short is to shorten

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

"Cut short all intermission" (Macbeth, iv, 3). To cut it short (cp. AUDLEY) means to bring to an end what you are doing or saying.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

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Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “to cut short is to shorten” mean?

"Cut short all intermission" (Macbeth, iv, 3). To cut it short (cp. AUDLEY) means to bring to an end what you are doing or saying.

Is “to cut short is to shorten” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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