ABBREVIATE

ABBRE'VIATE, verb transitive [from Latin abbrevio, brevio, from brevis, short]1. To shorten; to make shorter by contracting the parts. [In this sense, not much used, nor often applied to material substances.]2. To shorten; to abridge by the omission or defalcation of a part; to reduce to a smaller compass; as to abbreviate a writing.3. In mathematics, to reduce fractions to the lowest terms.

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abbreviate. Abbreviate, v.a. to shorten, abridge, cut off

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Ab‐bre″vi‐ate (�), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Abbreviated (�); p. pr. & vb. n. Abbreviating.] [[L. abbreviatus, p. p. of abbreviare; ad + breviare to shorten, fr. brevis short. See Abridge.]] 1. 1. To make briefer; to shorten; to abridge; to reduce by contraction or omission, especially of words written or spoken.
It is one thing to abbreviate by contracting, another by cutting off. Bacon. 2. 2. (Math.) To reduce to lower terms, as a fraction.