If something is short or lasts for a short time, it does not last very long.

If you talk about a short hour, day, or year, you mean that it seems to have passed very quickly or will seem to pass very quickly.

A short speech, letter, or book does not have many words or pages in it.

Someone who is short is not as tall as most people are.

Something that is short measures only a small amount from one end to the other.

If you are short of something or if it is short, you do not have enough of it. If you are running short of something or if it is running short, you do not have much of it left.

If someone or something is or stops short of a place, they have not quite reached it. If they are or fall short of an amount, they have not quite achieved it.

Short of a particular thing means except for that thing or without actually doing that thing.

If something is cut short or stops short, it is stopped before people expect it to or before it has finished.

If a name or abbreviation is short for another name, it is the short version of that name.

If you have a short temper, you get angry very easily.

If you are short with someone, you speak briefly and rather rudely to them, because you are impatient or angry.

If you are caught short or are taken short, you feel a sudden strong need to urinate, especially when you cannot easily find a toilet.

If a person or thing is called something for short, that is the short version of their name.

If you go short of something, especially food, you do not have as much of it as you want or need.

You use in short when you have been giving a lot of details and you want to give a conclusion or summary.

You use nothing short of or little short of to emphasize how great or extreme something is. For example, if you say that something is nothing short of a miracle or nothing short of disastrous, you are emphasizing that it is a miracle or it is disastrous.

If you say that someone is, for example, several cards short of a full deck or one sandwich short of a picnic, you think they are stupid, foolish, or crazy.

If someone or something is short on a particular good quality, they do not have as much of it as you think they should have.

If someone stops short of doing something, they come close to doing it but do not actually do it.

If workers are put on short time, they are asked to work fewer hours than the normal working week, because their employer can not afford to pay them a full time wage.

If something pulls you up short or brings you up short, it makes you suddenly stop what you are doing.

If you make short work of someone or something, you deal with them or defeat them very quickly.