# short circuit
## English
### Alternative forms

* short-circuit

### Etymology

short + circuit

### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)

### Noun

short circuit (plural short circuits)
* (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
### Verb

short circuit (third-person singular simple present short circuits, present participle short circuiting, simple past and past participle short circuited)
* (transitive) To cause a short circuit in.
** 1984, Tom Clancy, “The Eighth Day: Friday, 10 December”, in The Hunt for Red October, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, page 193:In the motor control room aft, a crewman crashed against the main electrical switchboard, short-circuiting it with his body, and all power aboard was lost.
* (intransitive) To undergo a short circuit.
* (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.
* (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: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.”
* (transitive) To bypass, especially by overhastiness.
** 1982 February 6, Michael Bronski, “A Very Stale Crisp”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 28, page 11:By insisting that "style" is the only way to exert your undeserving self upon the world these books short-circuit the chance for, and even the need for, the possibility of change in the lives of people or the culture.
** 2014, Zahi Zalloua, Reading Unruly, page 172:By multiplying interpretive registers, however, Baudelaire's text short-circuits the desire for identification as well as erodes any rigid allegorical mapping.
* (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, 4 and 5 usually use the hyphenated spelling short-circuit.

#### Synonyms

* short out

#### Derived terms

* short circuit operator