Noun

1. An unintentional connection of low resistance or impedance in a circuit such that excessive and often damaging current flows in it.

Verb

1. to cause a short circuit in
2. to force termination of an ongoing process before its natural conclusion by bypassing one or more intermediary steps
   • 1998: Catherine Nickerson, The Web of Iniquity

     [H]is temporarily successful attempt to smear Redfield is an effort to short-circuit the narrative into premature and mistaken resolution.

   • 2002: Jim Kasper, Short Cycle Selling: Beating Your Competitors in the Sales Race,

     You do not need to follow your entire sales cycle if the customer wants to short-circuit it for you.

   • 2003: Gina Hens-Piazza, Nameless, Blameless, and Without Shame: Two Cannibal Mothers Before a King

     My mother, determined to short-circuit my outcry, would match my objections by pointing out an inherent reward for doing such work.

3. to terminate a loop before the declared termination condition is met or a conditional before all conditions have been tested for
   • 2002: Paul Kimmel, Visual Basic.Net Unleashed

     For example, to short-circuit the "LoggedIn" or "LogIn" "if" conditional, replace the "Or" with "OrElse" and the statement is interpreted to mean "if not logged in, then log in".

   • 2002: Jose Mojico, C# and VB.NET Conversion Pocket Reference

     If you would like to short-circuit, you must replace "And" with the "AndAlso" keyword and "Or" with the "OrElse" keyword, as follows....

   • 2006: Jay Hillard & Stephen Teilhet, C# Cookbook

     The "Demand" is done to ensure that you have indeed been granted this permission before using the "Assert" to short-circuit the stackwalk.