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Glite Dictionary
👦 Very short person ✂️ Shortened object
sawn-off

sawn-off

8.0
A person who is very short and stocky
  • adjective
  • /sɔːnˈɔf/
  • Offensive
translation icon : enano (ofensivo)
  • He was a sawn-off goalkeeper but made up for it with agility.

Examples

  • That boy looks sawn-off next to his taller classmates.

  • The sawn-off kid stood his ground against taller classmates.

  • They always joked about Sam being a sawn-off dynamo on the football pitch.

  • He is quite sawn-off compared to his friends.

  • The sawn-off boy surprised everyone with his confidence in the basketball game.

  • Despite being sawn-off, he was always the first to volunteer for team activities.

  • In a group of tall friends, he felt a bit sawn-off during their outings.

Synonyms

pint-sized
vssawn-off
  • Informal
7 4.2

Very small, often used for a person, animal, or thing that is lively

applies to short human build specifically, not to general smallness
sawed-off
vssawn-off
  • Offensive
1 7.8

Very short in height, often used about people

has identical meaning but differs in regional form or spelling
runty
vssawn-off
  • Informal
1 7.8

Smaller and weaker than others of the same kind

refers to very short, stocky, or stunted people without weakness implication
pint-size
vssawn-off
  • Informal
1 4.4

Very small in height, usually used for a person or animal

focuses on short, stocky, or stunted human build rather than just height

Antonyms

tall
∞ 1.0

Higher than most people or things of the same kind

How Short

stunted
3 4.4
sawn-off
  • Offensive
8.0
short
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

sawn-off positive

Morphology

sawn-off = sawn + off (semi-transparent) = sawn + off

The adjective is derived from the literal composition 'sawn' + 'off' but the human-description sense (short/stunted) is a figurative, colloquial extension that learners may not predict from the components.

Etymology

Sawn-off comes from the picture of something cut by a saw and the cut piece taken off. Picture a tree stump or a broom with its top cut away so it looks short and stubby, and you can see why a very short, stocky person is called 'sawn-off'.