1. solid fats used in baking to make pastry tender and flaky
Usage: culinary
2. abbreviated forms of words or phrases

Examples

• The recipe calls for two cups of various shortenings including butter and lard.
• Vegetable shortenings work well for making pie crusts.
• The baker prefers natural shortenings over artificial ones.
• Common shortenings in English include ‘can’t’ for ‘cannot’ and ‘won’t’ for ‘will not’.
• Text messages often contain shortenings like ‘u’ for ‘you’.
• The dictionary lists standard shortenings for common phrases.