#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my $text = "abbreviate
v. 1 shorten, compress, contract, truncate, trim, reduce,
curtail: We abbreviated some of the longer words to save space.
2 shorten, cut, condense, abridge, abstract, digest, epitomize,
summarize, US synopsize: The school presented an abbreviated
version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.";

$text =~ s/:[^\.]+\.//g;
print $text, "\n";

abbreviate
v. 1 shorten, compress, contract, truncate, trim, reduce,
curtail
2 shorten, cut, condense, abridge, abstract, digest, epitomize,
summarize, US synopsize