Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Shorten \Short"en\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Shortened ?}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Shortening}.] [See {Short}, a.]
   1. To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as,
      to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of
      calamity.

   2. To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to
      lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to
      shorten work, an allowance of food, etc.

            Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am
            shortened by my chain.                --Dryden.

   3. To make deficient (as to); to deprive; -- with of.

            Spoiled of his nose, and shortened of his ears.
                                                  --Dryden.

   4. To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard,
      pot liquor, or the like.

   {To shorten a rope} (Naut.), to take in the slack of it.

   {To shorten sail} (Naut.), to reduce sail by taking it in.

Source : WordNet®

shortened
     adj 1: cut short; "a sawed-off shotgun"; "a sawed-off broomstick";
            "the shortened rope was easier to use" [syn: {sawed-off},
             {sawn-off}]
     2: cut short in duration; "the abbreviated speech"; "a
        curtailed visit"; "her shortened life was clearly the
        result of smoking"; "an unsatisfactory truncated
        conversation" [syn: {abbreviated}, {truncated}]
     3: shortened by or as if by means of parts that slide one
        within another or are crushed one into another; "a miracle
        that anyone survived in the telescoped cars"; "years that
        seemed telescoped like time in a dream" [syn: {telescoped}]
     4: with parts removed; "the drastically cut film" [syn: {cut}]