shortening noun2 •(US) Fat that is solid at room temperature, especially hydrogenated vegetable oil (known as vegetable shortening), used to make shortcrust pastry and in deep fat frying.Put on the skillet, slip on the lid / Mammy's going to make us some shortening bread / And that ain't all our mammy's going to do / She's going to cook us some coffee, too — 1979 •verbal noun of shorten: the process by which something is made shorter; a reduction in length. formsshortenings
