Definition of "in short"

[H]e told me I did not treat him as if he was my husband, or talk of my children as if I was a mother; and, in short, that I did not deserve to be used as a wife.

1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722

Mr Snagsby has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process; in skins and rolls of parchment; in paper—foolscap, brief, draft, brown, white, whitey-brown, and blotting; in stamps; in office-quills, pens, ink, India-rubber, pounce, pins, pencils, sealing-wax, and wafers; in red tape, and green ferret; in pocket-books, almanacs, diaries, and law lists; in string boxes, rulers, inkstands—glass and leaden, penknives, scissors, bodkins, and other small office-cutlery; in short, in articles too numerous to mention.

1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter X, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853

I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, / And in short, I was afraid.

1915 June, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, London: The Egotist […], published 1917, page 13

Most political experts expect the Minnesota election to be decided in the courts or even in the state senate. In short, it's a mess.

2008 December 4, Kate Pickert, “A Brief History of Recounts”, in Time‎, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., archived from the original on 2013-08-15