abridge

• POS: Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: a=bridge

CIDE DICTIONARY

abridge, v. t. [OE. abregen, OF. abregier, F. abréger, fr. L. abbreviare; ad + brevis short. See Brief and cf. Abbreviate.].

•  To make shorter; to shorten in duration; to lessen; to diminish; to curtail; as, to abridge labor; to abridge power or rights.  Smollett.  [1913 Webster]

  "She retired herself to Sebaste, and abridged her train from state to necessity."  [1913 Webster]
•  To shorten or contract by using fewer words, yet retaining the sense; to epitomize; to condense; as, to abridge a history or dictionary.  [1913 Webster]
•  To deprive; to cut off; -- followed by of, and formerly by from; as, to abridge one of his rights.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

abridge, v.tr.
1 shorten (a book, film, etc.) by using fewer words or making deletions.
2 curtail (liberty).

Derivative

abridgable adj. abridger n.

Etymology

ME f. OF abreg(i)er f. LL abbreviare ABBREVIATE

DEVIL DICTIONARY

abridge

v.t. To shorten.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for
people to abridge their king, a decent respect for the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.
Oliver Cromwell

THESAURUS

abridge

abbreviate, abstract, bereave, bleed, blot out, blue-pencil, bob, boil down, bowdlerize, brief, cancel, capsule, capsulize, censor, clip, compress, condense, contract, crop, cross out, curtail, cut, cut back, cut down, cut off, cut off short, cut short, damp, dampen, decrease, deduct, deflate, delete, depreciate, depress, deprive, deprive of, digest, diminish, disentitle, divest, dock, downgrade, drain, ease one of, edit, edit out, elide, epitomize, erase, expunge, expurgate, foreshorten, kill, lessen, lighten one of, limit, lower, milk, mine, minify, minimize, mow, narrow, nip, nutshell, omit, outline, pare, poll, pollard, prune, reap, recap, recapitulate, reduce, rescind, restrict, retrench, roll back, rub out, scale down, shave, shear, shorten, simplify, sketch, sketch out, slash, snub, step down, strike, strike off, strike out, stunt, sum up, summarize, synopsize, take away from, take from, take in, tap, telescope, trim, truncate, tune down, void

ROGET THESAURUS

abridge

Conciseness

VB be concise, condense, abridge, abstract, come to the point.

Compendium

VB abridge, abstract, epitomize, summarize, make an abstract, prepare an abstract, draw an abstract, compile an abstract, recapitulate, review, skim, run over, sum up, abbreviate, condense, compile.

Decrease

VB decrease, diminish, lessen, abridge, shrink, drop off, fall off, tail off, fall away, waste, wear, wane, ebb, decline, descend, subside, melt away, die away, retire into the shade, hide its diminished head, fall to a low ebb, run low, languish, decay, crumble, bate, abate, dequantitate, discount, depreciate, extenuate, lower, weaken, attenuate, fritter away, mitigate, dwarf, throw into the shade, reduce, shorten, subtract.

Shortness

VB be short, render short, shorten, curtail, abridge, abbreviate, take in, reduce, compress, epitomize, retrench, cut short, obtruncate, scrimp, cut, chop up, hack, hew, cut down, pare down, clip, dock, lop, prune, shear, shave, mow, reap, crop, snub, truncate, pollard, stunt, nip, check the growth of, foreshorten (in drawing).