shorted

verb

past tense of short
as in cheated
to rob by the use of trickery or threats charged that the used-car dealer had been shorting customers for years

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of shorted Those who shorted the provocation phase got crushed by the pivot. — Jon Markman, Forbes.com, 22 Jan. 2026 Crowley alleged that her department had been shorted money needed to improve fire responses. — Dan Walters, Oc Register, 4 Mar. 2026 The initial claim from Nebraska was scant on details about how much water is being shorted to Nebraska users. — The Denver Post Editorial Board, Denver Post, 28 Oct. 2025 Electric telegraph lines across Europe and the Americas shorted out. — Literary Hub, 27 Oct. 2025 Still, the trades raised some eyebrows because whoever purchased a large amount of stock futures and sold or shorted crude futures at that moment made a lot of money just minutes later. — Yun Li, CNBC, 23 Mar. 2026 The first, in which a dangling panel from an Acela train shorted third-rail power into the signaling system, shut down rail travel into and out of Penn for more than a day. — Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News, 11 June 2026 Online and in congressional hearings, Tenev was accused of aiding hedge funds that had shorted GameStop, at amateur traders’ expense. — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 13 Mar. 2026 Citadel ended up making a grave-dancer investment in Melvin Capital, a hedge fund that had shorted GameStop, to capitalize on Melvin’s distress. — Gary Sernovitz, New Yorker, 15 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shorted
  1. cheated
  2. plucked
  3. squeezed
  4. hustled
  5. stung
  6. screwed
  7. stuck
Verb
  • Hell may hath no fury like a Red Devils squad feeling cheated after the shocking FIFA decision to allow Balogun to play tonight in Seattle.
    — Ben Church, CNN Money, 6 July 2026
  • Billups is accused of participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games tied to La Cosa Nostra organized crime families that cheated unsuspecting gamblers out of at least $7 million.
    — Ed White, Twin Cities, 29 June 2026
Definition of cheated
Verb
  • On the walls, black-and-white printouts of newspaper articles, magazines and book pages looked like they were plucked from a Pinterest board on scrapbooking.
    — Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2026
  • Despite his young age, the then 36-year-old was far from a nobody plucked from the ether, though.
    — Chris Evans, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
Definition of plucked
Verb
  • The performance uptick that Motorola squeezed from the 2026 Razr+ is minor at best, with results showing no significant year-over-year gains.
    — Kimberly Gedeon, PC Magazine, 29 June 2026
  • There was Paris squeezed between meetings on a fleeting work trip.
    — Alisha Prakash, Travel + Leisure, 27 June 2026
Definition of squeezed
Verb
  • The few that didn’t have hustled to catch up.
    — Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 23 June 2026
  • The first inning looked promising as Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda singled, and Cedric Mullins hustled his bunt attempt into a hit to load the bases.
    — Marc Topkin, The Orlando Sentinel, 21 June 2026
Definition of hustled
Verb
  • Democrats are still stung by Rogan’s nearly three-hour Trump interview in the final weeks of the 2024 campaign.
    — Steven Sloan, Los Angeles Times, 30 June 2026
  • Having dominated most of his players in table tennis over the years, Gadowsky is still stung after meeting his match.
    — John Wawrow, Chicago Tribune, 26 June 2026
Definition of stung
Verb
  • Either Cody or Gunther wins because Sami gets screwed; Zayn will then further descend into madness and attack someone after the bell.
    — Darren Cooper, Forbes.com, 26 June 2026
  • With Dumb Money, also directed by Gillespie, Rogen played businessman Gabe Plotkin, who got screwed in the GameStop stock drama.
    — Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 26 June 2026
Definition of screwed
Verb
  • Twenty-seven people were inside the building, two of whom got stuck before ultimately freeing themselves and exiting the building.
    — Drew Pittock, USA Today, 7 July 2026
  • When the rope broke, three people fell 30 to 40 feet to the beach, and the other three were stuck halfway up the cliff.
    — Bay Area News Group, Mercury News, 6 July 2026
Definition of stuck

Browse Nearby Words

shortcutting
shorted
shorten
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Shorted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shorted. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All