How to Use shorten in a Sentence

shorten

verb

• He had to shorten the speech.
• This drives the hot end against the block, enlarging it, and shortening the metal in the process.
  — Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 9 Aug. 2023
• Bergeron shortened that phrase to Mai Tai, and the rest is history.
  — Tori Latham, Robb Report, 17 Apr. 2023
• To fry the wonton wrappers, cut the squares into ½-inch strips, then cut those strips in half crosswise to shorten them.
  — Eric Kim, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Oct. 2023
• Julie’s seven-year sentence, on the other hand, was shortened by 14 months.
  — Esther Kang, Peoplemag, 14 Feb. 2024
• Almost every disable in the game has also been shortened to quicken up the pace of fights.
  — Mike Stubbs, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2023
• It was shortened to La Mesa when a post office was established in 1891.
  — San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Oct. 2023
• The standard time to fill the form for Tpoxx took doctors two hours, Daskalakis said, before efforts were made to shorten it to 15 minutes.
  — Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2023
• But as the fleet reached Canvey Island, the already light winds slackened, and the race committee shortened the course.
  — William Booth, Washington Post, 24 July 2023
• If successful, the drag should slow down the tiny cubesat enough to shorten its orbital decay time to just a two-year lifespan.
  — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 5 Oct. 2023
• At this point, muscles are shortening and lengthening at the same time.
  — Nicole Wetsman, Popular Science, 24 May 2023
• Tanya Stallings named her infant daughter Tenacious but shortened it to Tanay.
  — Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post, 28 Jan. 2024
• That’s typically a no-no, and a great way to shorten the life of cables, and even connections.
  — PCMAG, 26 Jan. 2024
• If the outdoor temperature is above 90 degrees, the time shortens to one hour.
  — Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 10 Sep. 2023
• Those who can afford to shorten the term of their loans also did so to take advantage of lower APRs.
  — Medora Lee, USA TODAY, 14 June 2023
• Getting there: Thanks to all the infrastructure built for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the drive to Dushikou has been shortened by almost two hours.
  — Story, CNN, 6 Apr. 2023
• Especially after that freshman season in the fall of 2020 was pushed back to the spring and then shortened to only six games.
  — Chicago Tribune, 16 Aug. 2023
• The play was no masterpiece, an ungainly sprawl with a cast of more than two dozen that, if not shortened by a director, ran three and a half hours.
  — Adam Hochschild, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Oct. 2023
• Law firms with lengthy multi-name titles frequently get shortened to just the first name in their title.
  — Chris Deubert, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
• While bur oaks, which are native to Illinois, can live for as long as four centuries, the lifespan of the zoo’s tree was shortened by the development around it.
  — Teresa Nowakowski, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 May 2023
• Clear can also be used for the same purpose in select U.S. arenas and stadiums (see the list below) or to shorten your wait for a rental car.
  — Talia Avakian, Travel + Leisure, 11 Sep. 2023
• And there seems to be no progress toward shortening the work week to four days from five – which may have been more of an optimistic ask than a hard demand.
  — Marick Masters, Fortune, 8 Oct. 2023
• Bieber’s 2021 season was shortened because of an injury to the rotator cuff in his right shoulder.
  — Paul Hoynes, cleveland, 12 Sep. 2023
• The Buffaloes last made a brief appearance in the poll during the pandemic shortened 2020 season.
  — USA TODAY, 5 Sep. 2023
• Mervis went undrafted in the pandemic shortened, five-round, 2020 draft.
  — Bernie Pleskoff, Forbes, 5 May 2023
• These who received the orders were already on 96-hour prepare-to-deploy status, which has now been shortened to 24 hours.
  — Courtney Kube, NBC News, 16 Oct. 2023
• Calls to shorten the working week have multiplied in recent years.
  — Olesya Dmitracova, CNN, 22 Feb. 2024
• Shopping for bras with adjustable features, like straps that can be shortened or lengthened, can increase the chances that your bra will be comfy.
  — Jasmine Gomez, Women's Health, 18 Aug. 2023
• Bending your wrist will take the onus off your target muscles and shorten the levers, making the movement easier.
  — Brett Williams, Men's Health, 31 May 2023
• During construction, the mixture of the lime, sand and stones was still hot and therefore dried more quickly, which shortened construction time.
  — Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 25 Mar. 2024

Last Updated: 3 May 2024