<abstract><p>The free metaplectic transformation (FMT) has gained much popularity in recent times because of its various applications in signal processing, paraxial optical systems, digital algorithms, optical encryption and so on. However, the FMT is inadequate for localized analysis of non-transient signals, as such, it is imperative to introduce a unique localized transform coined as the short-time free metaplectic transform (ST-FMT). In this paper, we investigate the ST-FMT. First we propose the definition of the ST-FMT and provide the time-frequency analysis of the proposed transform in the FMT domain. Second we establish the relationship between the ST-FMT and short-time Fourier transform (STFT) in $ L^2(\mathbb R^n) $ and investigate the basic properties of the proposed transform including the reconstruction formula, Moyal's formula. The emergence of the ST-FMT definition and its properties broadens the development of time-frequency representation of higher-dimensional signals theory to a certain extent. We extend some different uncertainty principles (UPs) from quantum mechanics including Lieb's inequality, Pitt's inequality, Hausdorff-Young inequality, Heisenberg's UP, Hardy's UP, Beurling's UP, Logarithmic UP and Nazarov's UP. Finally, we give a numerical example and a possible applications of the proposed ST-FMT.</p></abstract>