Adjacent Words

Abbreviate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ABBRE'VIATE, v.t. [from Latin abbrevio, brevio, from brevis, short]
1. To shorten; to make shorter by contracting the parts. [In this sense, not much used, nor often applied to material substances.]
2. To shorten; to abridge by the omission or defalcation of a part; to reduce to a smaller compass; as to abbreviate a writing.
3. In mathematics, to reduce fractions to the lowest terms.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: reduce in scope while retaining essential elements; "The manuscript must be shortened" [syn: abridge, foreshorten, abbreviate, shorten, cut, contract, reduce] [ant: dilate, elaborate, enlarge, expand, expatiate, exposit, expound, flesh out, lucubrate]
2: shorten; "Abbreviate `New York' and write `NY'"

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (-ated; -ating) Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin abbreviatus, past participle of abbreviare — more at abridge Date: 15th century to make briefer; especially to reduce to a shorter form intended to stand for the whole Synonyms: see shorten • abbreviator noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. shorten, esp. represent (a word etc.) by a part of it. Etymology: ME f. LL abbreviare shorten f. brevis short: cf. ABRIDGE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Abbreviate Ab*bre"vi*ate, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Abbreviated; p. pr. & vb. n. Abbreviating.] [L. abbreviatus, p. p. of abbreviare; ad + breviare to shorten, fr. brevis short. See Abridge.] 1. To make briefer; to shorten; to abridge; to reduce by contraction or omission, especially of words written or spoken. It is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. --Bacon. 2. (Math.) To reduce to lower terms, as a fraction.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Abbreviate Ab*bre"vi*ate, a. [L. abbreviatus, p. p.] 1. Abbreviated; abridged; shortened. [R.] ``The abbreviate form.'' --Earle. 2. (Biol.) Having one part relatively shorter than another or than the ordinary type.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Abbreviate Ab*bre"vi*ate, n. An abridgment. [Obs.] --Elyot.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(abbreviates, abbreviating, abbreviated) If you abbreviate something, especially a word or a piece of writing, you make it shorter. He abbreviated his first name to Alec. = shorten VERB: V n to n, also V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Shorten (by cutting off), curtail, reduce, contract, retrench, condense, compress, epitomize, cut short, cut down. See abridge.

Moby Thesaurus

abridge, abstract, attenuate, be telegraphic, blot out, blue-pencil, bob, boil down, bowdlerize, cancel, capsulize, censor, circumscribe, clip, coarct, compact, compress, concentrate, condense, consolidate, constrict, constringe, contract, cramp, crop, cross out, curtail, cut, cut back, cut down, cut off short, cut short, decrease, delete, dock, draw, draw in, draw together, edit, edit out, elide, epitomize, erase, expunge, expurgate, extenuate, foreshorten, kill, knit, mow, narrow, nip, omit, poll, pollard, prune, pucker, pucker up, purse, reap, recap, recapitulate, reduce, rescind, retrench, rub out, shave, shear, shorten, slash, snub, solidify, strangle, strangulate, strike, strike off, strike out, stunt, sum up, summarize, synopsize, take in, telescope, trim, truncate, void, waste no words, wrinkle