shorten

verb

• 1make or become shorter: [with object]:he shortened his stride patients whose waiting time had been shortened [no object]:as skirts shortened, so heels rose around mid September, days shorten and temperatures dip
• (with reference to gambling odds) make or become shorter; decrease: [with object]:Ladbrokes shortened Nashwan’s odds from 2-1 to 7-4 [no object]:the odds had shortened to 14-1
• [with object] Prosody & Phonetics make (a vowel or syllable) short: the preceding vowels are shortened

• 2 [with object] Sailing reduce the amount of (sail spread): before sail could be shortened she went on to her beam ends