abridge

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English

Etymology

From Middle English abreggen, abregge, abrigge (“curtail, lessen”),[1] from Old French abregier, abreger, from Late Latin abbreviō, abberiāre (“make brief”).[2] Doublet of abbreviate.

Pronunciation

Verb

abridge (third-person singular simple present abridges, present participle abridging, simple past and past participle abridged)

  1. (transitive, archaic) To deprive; to cut off. [3]
  2. (transitive, archaic, rare) To debar from. [3]
  3. (transitive) To make shorter; to shorten in duration or extent. [3]
    • 1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warre‎, Cambridge, Book 2, Chapter 31, p. 85:
      She retired her self to Sebaste, and abridged her train from State to necessity.
    • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., , →OCLC:
      The bridegroom, perceiving his condition, abridged the visit […]
  4. (transitive) To shorten or contract by using fewer words, yet retaining the sense; to epitomize; to condense.[4] [3]
    • 1911, Samuel Johnson, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
      It was still necessary for the man who had been formerly saluted by the highest authority as dictator of the English language to supply his wants by constant toil. He abridged his Dictionary. He proposed to bring out an edition of Shakespeare by subscription, and many subscribers sent in their names and laid down their money; but he soon found the task so little to his taste that he turned to more attractive employments.
    • 1891, Henry Melville, chapter 3, in Billy Budd:
      Such an episode in the Island's grand naval story her naval historians naturally abridge; one of them (G.P.R. James) candidly acknowledging that fain would he pass it over did not "impartiality forbid fastidiousness."
  5. (transitive) Cut short; truncate. [3]
  6. (transitive) To curtail. [3]
    He had his rights abridged by the crooked sheriff.

Usage notes

  • (deprive): Usually used with to or sometimes with from as, to abridge someone of his rights.

Derived terms

Translations

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Translations to be checked

References

  1. ^ Laurence Urdang (editor), The Random House College Dictionary (Random House, 1984 , →ISBN), page 5
  2. ^ Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 , →ISBN), page 6
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abridge”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 8.
  4. ^ Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 , →ISBN), page 4

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