to short-sheet

1 9.1

Fold the bed sheets so a person cannot stretch out fully

verb
/ˈʃɔrtˌʃit/

Archaic

: hacer la cama de forma engañosa

Everyone laughed when they realized we had short-sheeted his bed for the party.
short-sheet a bed

Examples

Short-sheeting someone's bed is a prank.

The Net (1995)
Tomorrow night, we could short-sheet her bed?

The House on Sorority Row (1982)
I think I know why Sammy Hagar just smiles and goes his merry way when he gets short-sheeted by the Van Halen brothers.

Blog text (21)
We decided to short-sheet her bed as a funny prank before she arrived.
If you short-sheet the guest bed, she won't be able to stretch out fully tonight.

Surface Forms

short-sheet infinitive

short-sheeted past

short-sheeted past participle

short-sheeting present participle

short-sheets third person singular

Morphology

short-sheet = short + sheet (transparent) = short + sheet

The compound literally means making the bed-sheet short so someone cannot stretch out, which is directly recoverable from 'short' + 'sheet'.

Etymology

Short-sheet comes from the simple idea of making a bed sheet 'short' so the person cannot stretch out their legs. A helpful way to remember it is to think of the two parts short and sheet — folding the sheet to make it too 'short' is exactly the prank, which is why to short-sheet someone means to play that bed trick.