short of

1. Having an inadequate supply of, as in We're short of cash right now . [Late 1600s] Also see fall short of .

2. Less than, inferior to, as in Nothing short of her best effort was needed to make the team . [Mid-1500s]

3. Other than, without resorting to, as in Short of yelling, I had no other way of getting his attention .

4. See stop short , def. 3.

Example Sentences

She said: "Encouragement from a writer of Hilary Mantel's stature is nothing short of transformative. It's like winning a thousand lotteries for debut writers."

From BBC

Recently, British golfer Matt Wallace shed tears on camera after falling just short of qualifying.

From Los Angeles Times

Then, on the par three 17th — Mahan had to win this hole and the next to keep the U.S. hopes alive — Mahan chunked his second shot, a chip, short of the green.

From Los Angeles Times

It said that Williams had fell "significantly short" of the standards expected of the profession and that banning her from teaching was in the public interest.

From BBC

The petition team fell short of the roughly 250,000 signatures needed to pass the ballot referendum — garnering just over 195,000 signatures — and the bill went into effect.

From Salon

Related Words

• deficient 
• faulty 
• inadequate 
• incomplete 
• meager 
• poor 
• scant 
• scarce 
• unsatisfactory