- tion, like a donkey's gallop;
THE SHORT AND LONG (or THE SHORT AND PLAIN) = (1) the whole truth: now usually the LONG AND THE SHORT: also (2) a couple of persons, one of dwarf and one of giant stature walking together; short and THICK, LIKE A WELSHMAN'S prick = a person very short and broad in the beam; short of puff = winded; short (or short-waisted) = crusty, irritable; SHORT OF A SHEET = crazy; for short = for brevity's sake; 'A short horse is soon curried' = a simple matter is soon disposed of; short commons = not too much to eat; short-limBERED = touchy; A SHORT SHRIFT AND A LONG ROPE = instant despatch; a short memory = forgetfulness.
. . . . Int. of Four Elements [Halliwell]. Yf ye will nedys know at short and longe, It is evyn a woman's tounge.
1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 123. We have, this is THE SHORT AND PLAIN (LONG AND SHORT of it).]
1577. Stanihurst, Desc. Ireland [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 599. A man is said to be in talk, short and sweet].
1592. Shakspeare, Mid. Night's Dream, iv. 2. The short and the long is, onr play is preferred. Ibid. (1596), Merry Wives, ii. 1. He loves your wife; there's the short and the long. Ibid. (1600), As You Like It, iii. 5. I will be bitter with him and passing short.
1602. Middleton, Blurt, Master Constable, i. 2. The rogue's made of pie-crust, he's so short.
1611. Jonson, Cataline, ii. 1. How, pretty sullenness, So harsh and short!
1611. Letter [Nares]. In which service two or three of them came short home.
c. 1617. Howell, Letters, 1. ii. 15. The French and English Ambassadors, interceding for a Peace, had a short Answer of Philip II.
1636. Heywood, Love's Mistress, 63. The short and the long of 't is, she's an ugly creature.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 219. Don Alphonso cut him short in his explanation.
1837. Barham, Ingolds. Leg., 'Brothers of Birchington.'—Father Dick, So they called him for short.
1870. Washington Watchman [De Vere]. My little gal's name is Helen, but we call her Heelen for short.
Short-ear, subs. phr. (American
University).—A rowdy: see Lamb.
Shorter, subs. (old).—One who
dwindles the surface and the edges
of coins by clipping, filing, shaking
together in a bag, precipitation,
or other means; a sweater
(q.v.).
Short-hEAD, subs. phr. (racing).—A
horse that fails by a short head.
1883. Greenwood, Odd People, 107. Fancy him having that horribly anathematized short head all his own, to revile it, and punch it . . . all the while with a firm grip on the cruel twitch attached to its nose.
Shortheels, subs. (old).—A wanton:
see Tart. Hence, short-*heeled
= unchaste (Grose).
1596. Chapman, Blind Beggar [Shepheard, Works (1874) 15]. Well, madam short-heels, I'll be even with you. Ibid. (1611), May-day, iv. 4. Take heed you slip not, coz, remember y'are SHORT-HEELED.
Short-length, subs. phr. (Scots').—A
small glass of brandy; a
'wee three.'
1864. Glasgow Citizen, 19 Nov. Is not the exhilarating short-length of brandy known beyond our own Queen Street?
Short-one, subs. phr. (old coaching:
obsolete).—A passenger
whose name was not on the way-*bill;
a SHOULDERSTICK (q.v.);
a BIT OF FISH (q.v.).
