short-staffed

British  

adjective

1. lacking an adequate number of staff, assistants, etc

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Explanation

If a business is short-staffed, it has fewer workers than usual. When a small cafe is short-staffed, servers might have to help wash dishes and ring customers up at the cash register. A short-staffed workplace suffers from an inadequate number of employees. This can be an ongoing problem: "Don't go to that grocery store, they're constantly short-staffed and the lines are always too long." It can also be a temporary situation, like the day several librarians happened to call in sick, leaving the library short-staffed. The term is from the "having too few" sense of short and the verb staff, "provide with workers."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

short-staffed

Plus, how AI could help short-staffed fire departments, the silent electronic battleground shaping warfare, and the startup trying to double the world’s compute.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026

Many patients will be faced with abruptly losing caregivers who have been with them for years, and facilities that are already strained will be even more short-staffed.

From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2026

The pair clocked off around an hour before their shift was due to end, the newspaper said citing sources, leaving the control tower short-staffed before the crash that killed two pilots.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

Jess said the ward was short-staffed, causing long waits when she rang the bell for assistance.

From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026

“I’ll be right back. We’re short-staffed today, so I’m wearing all the hats.”

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

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