go short vs shorten

go short

verb
  • (intransitive, or transitive with of) To have an insufficient amount (of). 

  • To sell a financial product, such as a share, that one does not presently own, as in the hope of buying it more cheaply later for delivery, so as to profit from a fall in price; cf. go long. 

shorten

verb
  • To make deficient (as to); to deprive (of). 

  • To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen. 

  • To take in the slack of (a rope). 

  • To reduce (sail) by taking it in. 

  • To become shorter. 

  • To make shorter; to abbreviate. 

  • To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, etc. 

How often have the words go short and shorten occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )