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Definition of abridge : 1. To deprive; to cut off; - followed by of, and formerly by from; as, to abridge one of his rights.
2. To make shorter; to shorten in duration; to lessen; to diminish; to curtail; as, to abridge labor; to abridge power or rights.
3. To shorten or contract by using fewer words, yet retaining the sense; to epitomize; to condense; as, to abridge a history or dictionary.

Synonyms:

hinder, narrow, constrict, sign up, keep in, thin out, melt off, deoxidise, hold back, foreshorten, slim, veer, ignore, edit out, hold, get, confine, keep under, restrain, sheer, hack, skip, turn off, keep back, subjugate, undertake, slew, disregard, geld, trim back, rationalize, check, bridle, burn, long, curb, expurgate, deoxidize, write out, repress, turn out, scale down, curve, suppress, lose weight, press, restrict, bring down, withhold, edit, sign on, bowdlerize, cut off, slue, take, thin, swerve, make out, boil down, switch off, trend, hold in, increase, trim down, issue, tighten, constrain, slenderize, snub, sign, quash, tailor, circumscribe, study atshorten, subdue, slim down, dilute, cut down, bowdlerise, castrate, come down, rationalise, keep, cut back, keep down, decoct

decrement, lessen, drain, deflate, abate, dwindle, die down, deduct, contract, concentrate, shrink, recede, erode, truncate, compact, curtail, deplete, decrease, lower, subside, shorten, compress, abbreviate, diminish

squeeze, condense, wither

clip, shear, lighten, taper, weed, bob, crop, prune, shave, trim, pare, minimize, reduce, cull, downgrade, nip

belittle

depreciate, discount, delete, cut, dock, subtract, elide

Usage examples:

• This afternoon Sir John Minnes, Mr. Coventry, and I went into Sir John's lodgings, where he showed us how I have blinded all his lights, and stopped up his garden door, and other things he takes notice of that he resolves to abridge me of, which do vex me so much that for all this evening and all night in my bed, so great a fool I am, and little master of my passion, that I could not sleep for the thoughts of my losing the privilege of the leads, and other things which in themselves are small and not worth half the trouble. - "Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete Transcribed From The Shorthand Manuscript In The Pepysian Library Magdalene College Cambridge By The Rev. Mynors Bright", Samuel Pepys Commentator: Lord Braybrooke.
• The Hebrew chroniclers, scandalised at the prosperity of the heathen, did their best to abridge the time of the Philistine dominion, and interspersed it with Israelitish victories. - "History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12)", G. Maspero.
• In the Autumn of 1836, the following resolutions were passed by an almost unanimous vote in both houses:- " Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Vermont, That neither Congress nor the State Governments have any constitutional right to abridge the free expressions of opinions, or the transmission of them through the medium of the public mails." - "The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus", American Anti-Slavery Society.