step short (third-person singular simple present steps short, present participle stepping short, simple past and past participle stepped short)

1. (obsolete, military) To diminish the length or rapidity of the step of a march in a military drill according to the established rules.

• “step”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.