short circuit

See also: shortcircuit and short-circuit

English

Alternative forms

• short-circuit

Etymology

short + circuit

Noun

short circuit (plural short circuits)

1. (electrical engineering) A usually unintentional connection of low resistance or impedance in a circuit such that excessive and often damaging current flows in it.

Synonyms

• short

Translations

unintentional connection

• Armenian: կարճ միացում (karč miacʻum)
• Belarusian: каро́ткае замыка́нне n (karótkaje zamykánnje)
• Bulgarian: къ́со съедине́ние n (kǎ́so sǎedinénie)
• Catalan: curtcircuit (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 短路 (zh) (duǎnlù), 短接 (zh) (duǎnjiē)

• Czech: zkrat m
• Danish: kortslutning (da) c
• Dutch: kortsluiting (nl) f
• Esperanto: kurta cirkvito
• Estonian: lühis (et), lühiühendus (et)
• Finnish: oikosulku (fi)
• French: court-circuit (fr) m
• Georgian: მოკლე ჩართვა (moḳle čartva), მოკლე შერთვა (moḳle šertva)
• German: Kurzschluss (de) m
• Greek: βραχυκύκλωμα (el) n (vrachykýkloma)
• Hebrew: קצר (he) m (kétser)
• Hungarian: rövidzárlat (hu), rövidre zárás
• Indonesian: hubungan pendek, korsleting (id), arus pendek
• Irish: gearrchiorcad m
• Japanese: 短絡 (ja) (たんらく, tanraku), ショート (ja) (shōto)
• Kazakh: қысқаша тұйықталу (qysqaşa tūiyqtalu)
• Korean: 쇼트 (ko) (syoteu), 합선(合線) (hapseon)
• Latvian: īssavienojums m
• Macedonian: краток спој m (kratok spoj)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kortslutning m or f

  Nynorsk: kortslutning f

• Occitan: cortcircuit (oc) m
• Polish: zwarcie (pl) n, spięcie (pl) n
• Portuguese: curto-circuito (pt) m
• Russian: коро́ткое замыка́ние (ru) n (korótkoje zamykánije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кратки спој m

  Roman: kratki spoj m

• Slovak: skrat m
• Slovene: kratki stik m
• Spanish: cortocircuito (es) m, (abbrev.) corto (es) m
• Sranan Tongo: syatusroiti
• Swedish: kortslutning (sv) c
• Tagalog: laktod
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: коро́тке замика́ння n (korótke zamykánnja)
• Vietnamese: đoản mạch (vi)
• Welsh: cylched fer f

Verb

short circuit (third-person singular simple present short circuits, present participle short circuiting, simple past and past participle short circuited)

1. (transitive) To cause a short circuit in.
2. (intransitive) To undergo a short circuit.
3. (transitive, by extension) To force termination of an ongoing process before its natural conclusion, by bypassing one or more intermediary steps.
   • 1998, Catherine Nickerson, The Web of Iniquity:

     [H]is temporarily successful attempt to smear Redfield is an effort to short-circuit the narrative into premature and mistaken resolution.

   • 2002, Jim Kasper, Short Cycle Selling: Beating Your Competitors in the Sales Race:

     You do not need to follow your entire sales cycle if the customer wants to short-circuit it for you.

   • 2003, Gina Hens-Piazza, Nameless, Blameless, and Without Shame: Two Cannibal Mothers Before a King:

     My mother, determined to short-circuit my outcry, would match my objections by pointing out an inherent reward for doing such work.

4. (transitive, by extension) To impede or disrupt.
   • 2016 November 28, Mike Vorkunov, “Despite Flash of Rose’s Prime, Knicks Are Dazed by Westbrook and Thunder”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     At times, the Knicks’ offense looked short-circuited. Anthony, despite his cold hand, kept shooting. / “They all feel good, to be honest with you,” Anthony said. “It wasn’t long, it wasn’t short, they were bouncing off the rim, they were chippers, the same shot I hit all the time so I can’t stop taking my shots.”

5. (transitive, computing) To terminate a loop before the declared termination condition is met, or a conditional before all conditions have been tested for.
   • 2002, Paul Kimmel, Visual Basic.Net Unleashed:

     For example, to short-circuit the "LoggedIn()" or "LogIn()" "if" conditional, replace the "Or" with "OrElse" and the statement is interpreted to mean "if not logged in, then log in".

   • 2002, Jose Mojico, C# and VB.NET Conversion Pocket Reference:

     If you would like to short-circuit, you must replace "And" with the "AndAlso" keyword and "Or" with the "OrElse" keyword, as follows....

   • 2006: Jay Hillard & Stephen Teilhet, C# Cookbook

     The "Demand" is done to ensure that you have indeed been granted this permission before using the "Assert" to short-circuit the stackwalk.

Usage notes

• Senses 3 and 4 usually use the hyphenated spelling short-circuit.

Synonyms

• short out

Derived terms

• short circuit operator

Translations

to cause a short circuit in

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 短接 (zh) (duǎnjiē)

• Danish: kortslutte
• Estonian: lühistama (et)
• French: court-circuiter (fr)
• Greek: βραχυκυκλώνω (el) (vrachykyklóno)
• Irish: gearrchiorcad
• Japanese: 短絡する (ja) (tanraku suru)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kortslutte

• Polish: spiąć (pl) pf, zewrzeć pf
• Portuguese: curto-circuitar
• Slovak: spôsobiť skrat
• Swedish: kortsluta (sv)

to undergo a short circuit

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 短路 (zh) (duǎnlù)