1. substances used to make pastry or baked goods tender and flaky by shortening gluten strands
Usage: cooking; baking
2. people or things that make something shorter in length, duration, or extent

Examples

• Butter and lard are traditional shorteners used in pie crusts.
• Vegetable shorteners like Crisco became popular alternatives to animal fats.
• The recipe calls for two cups of flour and half a cup of shorteners.
• Modern bakers often use various shorteners to achieve different textures.
• The editors acted as shorteners, cutting the manuscript by fifty pages.
• URL shorteners help make long web addresses more manageable.