S
Idioms beginning with "S"
Part of speech, explanation, example sentences, pronunciation
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Contents of S:
[short list] or [short-listed] {v. phr.}
To place on the list of select finalists for a job.
Only three of the twenty-seven applicants were short-listed for the assistant professorial vacancy in our department.
[short of] (1) {adj. phr.}
1. Less or worse than.
Don't do anything short of your best.
2. Not having enough.
We did not buy anything because we were short of money.
* /The girls were asked to wait on tables because the kitchen was short of […]
[short of] (2) {adv. phr.}
Away from; at a distance from.
The day's drive still left us a hundred miles short of the ocean.
The golfer's shot fell far short of the hole.
[short of breath] {adj.}
Panting and wheezing.
He ran up six flights of stairs so rapidly that he was short of breath for several minutes.
[short shrift] {n.}
Little or no attention. — Usually used with "get" or "give".
In books about jobs, women's work is consistently given short shrift.
[short-order cook] {n.}
A person who prepares food that cooks quickly.
Bruce found a summer job as a short-order cook in a drive-in restaurant.
The new diner needs another short-order cook.
Compare: [SLING HASH].
[short-spoken] {adj.}
Using so few words that you seem impatient or angry; speaking in a short impatient way; saying as little as possible in an unfriendly way.
Jim is always short-spoken when he is tired.
* /We were hoping to borrow Dad's car, […]
[shortchange] {v. phr.}
To return less money to a customer in a store than is coming to him or her; cheat.
I was shortchanged by the cashier when I got seven dollars back instead of eight.
[shortcut] {n.}
A road shorter than the one that people normally take.
We can save twenty minutes if we take this shortcut over the hill.
[shorthanded] {adj.}
Understaffed; short on workers.
With several employees gone for the holiday weekend and two dozen people in line, the rent-a-car agency suddenly found itself terribly shorthanded.