figurative. spec. To cut (words) short; to omit by indistinct or hurried utterance syllables and parts of words; to pronounce imperfectly.

As applied to sentences, verses, lines, letters, and the like, the sense leads on to 3.

transitive. To shorten (a word or phrase) so that a part, esp. the beginning, stands for the whole; (occasionally) to replace (a word) with a figure…

Grammar. To shorten (a word, syllable, etc.) by combining or eliding some of its elements.

Grammar. transitive. To cut short or contract (a word) by omitting one or more syllables or letters in the middle; also passive to be produced by…

transitive. To cut short, ‘clip’, contract, syncopate.

transitive. To dock the tail of; figurative to cut short, shorten, curtail.

transitive. To shorten or contract (a word, phrase, etc.). Frequently with into or to.

To cut off (esp. the last letter or syllable of a word).