Abridge — A Vocabulary Story
Farhana and the Never-Ending Story
Farhana loved telling her little brother Yusuf a bedtime story every night. There was just one tiny problem: her stories were enormous.
Her latest tale, The Pirate Queen of the Custard Sea, had forty-seven characters, three shipwrecks, and a very long chapter about what everyone ate for breakfast.
"Farhana," said Mum, poking her head round the door at nine o'clock, "Yusuf needs to sleep. Could you abridge it tonight?"
Abridge means to shorten a book, film, or piece of writing while keeping its main parts. It can also mean to reduce or cut down something such as rights or time.
Farhana gasped and clutched her chest as if she'd been struck by a cannonball. "Abridge it? But the breakfast chapter is the best part! There's toast!"
"There's always toast," said Mum. "Shorter, please."
So the next night, Farhana tried. She cut the breakfast chapter. She cut thirty of the forty-seven characters. She squished three shipwrecks into one truly spectacular splash.
Something strange happened. Yusuf sat up straighter. His eyes went wide. When the Pirate Queen finally found the golden custard spoon, he actually cheered into his pillow.
"Again!" he begged.
Farhana blinked. Her abridged story was a hit. All the exciting bits, none of the toast.
The next evening, Yusuf was waiting with his blanket pulled up to his chin. "The short one, please," he said. "The fast one. The good one."
Farhana bowed like a proper storyteller. "Tonight," she announced grandly, "I shall abridge the tale of The Sock Goblin of Bristol. It used to take two hours. Now it takes ten minutes, and every single minute is brilliant."
And it was.
Word Definition
abridge
meaning
to shorten a book, film, or piece of writing while keeping its main parts; to reduce or cut down something such as rights or time
synonyms
shorten · condense · abbreviate · summarise · curtail
antonyms
expand · lengthen · extend
example sentence
The publisher decided to abridge the long novel for younger readers.