Citations:short dozen

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 * 1866, Orville James Victor, Incidents and anecdotes of the war, page 66:
 * Said flag had been made some years ago for the children, and, to economise material and stitches, contained but three stripes and a short dozen of stars. Some of the neighbors beheld the tri-striped colors and at once gave the alarm.
 * 1999, Timothy J. Barnett, Legislative Learning: The 104th Republican Freshmen in the House, page 254:
 * By July 1997, a short dozen of the most conservative junior members of the GOP House Conference were dangerously frustrated with Gingrich's lack of energy

eleven

 * 1898, Aristophanes. I. The Acharnians. II. The knights. III. The clouds, page x:
 * Our short dozen of Aristophanic dramas may be taken to represent the fittest among the hundreds of other comedies which have perished.
 * 1913, Mary Bannister Willard, The Survey: social, charitable, civic: a journal of constructive philanthropy, volume 30, page 147:
 * Mrs. Van Slyke has chosen as her special field of interest the Syrian quarter of Brooklyn, and the result of her observations she has given us in a short dozen of stories, grouped under the title, Eve's Other Children.
 * 1976, Jeremy Addis, Books Ireland, issues 1-19, page 180:
 * Written on the Wind is a terrifying book, at least for a reviewer, because it consists of a short dozen (eleven) of personal

(dismissively) twelve

 * 2010, Angelo M. Codevilla, Advice to War Presidents: A Remedial Course in Statecraft, page 114:
 * He left only a short dozen of scared nobodies with the world's most unlikely tale—a resurrection that none of them had seen happen—and the fantastic promise that faith in it means eternal life with God.