shortchange

present singular third person shortchanges · participle present shortchanging · participle past shortchanged · past shortchanged · alternative short-change · alternative short change

1. transitiveTo defraud (someone) by giving them less change than they should be given after a transaction.

   I got shortchanged! I gave him $10 for a $5 item and he only gave me $1 back.

2. broadlytransitiveTo deprive (someone or something) of something due; to treat unfairly; to cheat, deceive; to half-ass.

   The elective class was easy, but in the end I was shortchanging myself by taking it.

   3 more examples

   This article's sparse discussion of tax-policy implications shortchanges the subject.

   Specific evidence that the United States is being short-changed in the cultural exchange program with the Soviet Union has been offered by Representative Michael Feighan of Ohio, chairman of the House subcommittee and the joint Senate House Committee on Immigration and Nationality Policy.

   1964 June 16, “Short End of Exchange”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 14

   Dr. [James D.] Watson’s tell-all memoir, “The Double Helix,” had also provoked his colleagues when it was published in 1968, infuriating them for, in their view, elevating himself while shortchanging others who were involved in the project.

   2025 November 7, Cornelia Dean, “James D. Watson, Co-Discoverer of the Structure of DNA, Is Dead at 97”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC