| short-winded | Affected with shortness of breath; having a quick, difficult respiration, as dyspnoic and asthmatic persons. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| shorten | 1. To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity. 2. To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc. "Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain." (Dryden) 3. To make deficient (as to); to deprive; with of. "Spoiled of his nose, and shortened of his ears." (Dryden) 4. To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, pot liquor, or the like. To shorten a rope, to reduce sail by taking it in. Origin: See Short. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shortening reaction | The adaptive shortening of the extensor muscles of the limb of a decerebrate animal when the limb is extended after it has been flexed. Compare: lengthening reaction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shorthand | A compendious and rapid method or writing by substituting characters, abbreviations, or symbols, for letters, words, etc.; short writing; stenography. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shortness | The quality or state of being short; want of reach or extension; brevity; deficiency; as, the shortness of a journey; the shortness of the days in winter; the shortness of an essay; the shortness of the memory; a shortness of provisions; shortness of breath. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shortness of breath | Difficulty breathing. (27 Sep 1997) |
| shortsightedness | <ophthalmology> That error of refraction in which rays of light entering the eye parallel to the optic axis are brought to a focus in front of the retina, as a result of the eyeball being too long from front to back (axial myopia) or of an increased strength in refractive power of the media of the eye (index myopia). Also called nearsightedness, because the near point is less distant than it is in emmetropia with an equal amplitude of accommodation. Origin: Gr. Myein = to shut (18 Nov 1997) |
| shortwing | <ornithology> Any one of several species of small wrenlike Asiatic birds having short wings and a short tail. They belong to Brachypterix, Callene, and allied genera. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shoshones | <ethnology> A linguistic family or stock of North American Indians, comprising many tribes, which extends from Montana and Idaho into Mexico. In a restricted sense the name is applied especially to the Snakes, the most northern of the tribes. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| shot | <radiobiology> Fusion jargon for the production of a (short-lived) plasma. In the early days, plasmas were produced by the discharge of capacitor banks, which (frequently) made a BANG. A modern tokamak produces a few dozen shots per day, each lasting a few seconds and, if nothing goes wrong, inaudible. (09 Oct 1997) |
| shot-feel | A peculiar sensation as of a nervous discharge or electric shock passing rapidly from the top of the head to the feet, sometimes described as a sensation of the rolling of shot down the body, occurring in acromegaly. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shot-silk phenomenon | The appearance of numerous wavelike, glistening reflexes, like the shimmer of silk, observed sometimes in the retina of a young person. Synonym: shot-silk phenomenon, shot-silk reflex. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shot-silk reflex | The appearance of numerous wavelike, glistening reflexes, like the shimmer of silk, observed sometimes in the retina of a young person. Synonym: shot-silk phenomenon, shot-silk reflex. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shot-silk retina | The appearance of numerous wavelike, glistening reflexes, like the shimmer of silk, observed sometimes in the retina of a young person. Synonym: shot-silk phenomenon, shot-silk reflex. (05 Mar 2000) |
| shote | 1. <zoology> A fish resembling the trout. 2. [Perh. A different word] A young hog; a shoat. Origin: AS. Sceota a darting fish, a trout, fr. Sceotan. See Shoot. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |