short circuit
Noun

short circuit (plural short circuits)

  1. A usually unintentional connection of low resistance or impedance in a circuit such that excessive and often damaging current flows in it.
Synonyms Translations Verb

short circuit (short circuits, present participle short circuiting; past and past participle short circuited)

  1. (transitive) to cause a short circuit in
  2. (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.
  3. (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.
Synonyms
  • short out
Translations


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