short of
Idioms-
Having an inadequate supply of, as in We're short of cash right now . [Late 1600s] Also see fall short of .
-
Less than, inferior to, as in Nothing short of her best effort was needed to make the team . [Mid-1500s]
-
Other than, without resorting to, as in Short of yelling, I had no other way of getting his attention .
-
See stop short , def. 3.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The third holds that we’ve come a long way in ridding ourselves of racism—particularly of the institutional kind—but stops short of declaring the bogeyman dead.
But he adds Cruz's music "ultimately falls short of the legends he's trying to replicate" - referring to earlier in the show when he told the crowd "I want to be John Lennon".
From BBC
Now, Swedish forward Viktor Gyokeres is in the lead, though he remains far short of where the club hoped he would be.
That falls short of an official declaration of war.
From Barron's
Sri Lanka came up just short of pulling off the second-highest chase in World Cup history after some late big hitting from captain Dasun Shanaka as Pakistan's players went through the motions.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
