''abridge'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904134559-00-⌔

abridge - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

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

• (transitive, archaic) To deprive; to cut off. [First attested around 1150–1350]¹
• (transitive, archaic, rare) To debar from. [First attested around 1150–1350]¹
• (transitive) To make shorter; to shorten in duration or extent. [First attested around 1350–1470]¹
  • ✤ She retired her self to Sebaste, and abridged her train from State to necessity.²
  • ✤ The bridegroom, perceiving his condition, abridged the visit […]³
• (transitive) To shorten or contract by using fewer words, yet retaining the sense; to epitomize; to condense. [First attested in 1384]⁴ [First attested around 1350–1470]¹
  • ✤ 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.⁵
  • ✤ 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.”⁶
• (transitive) Cut short; truncate. [First attested around 1350–1470]¹
• (transitive) To curtail. [First attested around 1350–1470]¹
  • ✤ He had his rights abridged by the crooked sheriff.

Etymology

From Middle English abreggen, abregge, abrigge (“curtail, lessen”),⁷ from Old French abregier, abreger, from Late Latin abbreviō, abbreviāre (“make brief”).⁸ Doublet of abbreviate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /əˈbɹɪd͡ʒ/
• (US) IPA: /əˈbɹɪd͡ʒ/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɪdʒ
• Hyphenation: a‧bridge

Printed 2026-09-04.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 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. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. 1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warre ‎${}^{[1]}$, Cambridge, Book 2, Chapter 31, p. 85: ↩

3. 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC: ↩

4. Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], →ISBN), page 4 ↩

5. 1911, Samuel Johnson, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica: ↩

6. 1891, Henry Melville, chapter 3, in Billy Budd: ↩

7. Laurence Urdang (editor), The Random House College Dictionary (Random House, 1984 [1975], →ISBN), page 5 ↩

8. Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster’s Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], →ISBN), page 6 ↩