Short fitting skirts nearly dry (6)
I believe the answer is:
abrupt
'short' is the definition.
(abrupt can mean short or terse)
'fitting skirts nearly dry' is the wordplay.
'fitting' becomes 'apt' (both mean appropriate).
'skirts' means one lot of letters goes inside another (skirt can mean to go around).
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'dry' becomes 'brut' (type of wine).
'brut' with its final letter taken off is 'bru'.
'apt' placed around 'bru' is 'ABRUPT'.
(Other definitions for abrupt that I've seen before include "Sudden, maybe rude" , "without warning" , "Curt and brief" , "Curt, sharp" , "using minimal language?" .)