Not prolonged, or relatively less prolonged, in utterance;
   -- opposed to long, and applied to vowels or to syllables. In English,
   the long and short of the same letter are not, in most cases, the long
   and short of the same sound; thus, the i in ill is the short sound, not
   of i in isle, but of ee in eel, and the e in pet is the short sound of
   a in pate, etc. See Quantity, and Guide to Pronunciation, //22, 30.