understaffed

[ uhn-der-staft, -stahft ]

adjective

1. having an insufficient number of personnel:

   The hospital is understaffed.

understaffed

/ ˌʌndəˈstɑːft /

adjective

1. not having enough staff

   her department is understaffed

Word History and Origins

Origin of understaffed¹

First recorded in 1890–95; under- + staff ¹ + -ed ³

Example Sentences

The day-to-day delivery of shots, without reinforcements, will play out at understaffed clinics, overwhelmed pharmacies and beleaguered long-term care facilities.

From Washington Post

VA hospitals are understaffed—just before the pandemic, the VA reported 43,000 staff vacancies out of more than 400,000 health care staff positions.

From Popular-Science

The cumbersome boxes are more difficult to sort than paper mail, and stressed the Postal Service’s already understaffed operations.

From Washington Post

A pandemic coupled with record numbers of mail-in ballots means that local election offices will both be understaffed and overextended.

From Fortune

At the same time, it’s clear that some problems—PPE shortages, the pace of vaccine development, understaffed hospitals—are beyond the ability of any one person to fix.

From Quartz

Fve pending nominees call Arizona home, all of whom were designated “judicial emergencies” to serve on understaffed courts.

From The Daily Beast

Abu Muhammadeen, one of the surgeons, said the hospital is critically understaffed.

From The Daily Beast

Some stores are understaffed, and “that causes a poor experience for the customer.”

From The Daily Beast

When those entities were underfunded, understaffed, and marginalized, it encouraged an anything-goes environment.

From The Daily Beast

The police forces are understaffed, insufficiently trained, and ill-equipped.

From The Daily Beast

The estate was understaffed, underfinanced, and the repairs were always in arrear.

From Project Gutenberg

But I will say that according to other institutions, that this institution was also understaffed.

From Project Gutenberg

The hotel people are so dreadfully understaffed just now--this war!

From Project Gutenberg

As a result, they are too few in number and are seriously understaffed, making shopping a time-consuming and frustrating activity.

From Project Gutenberg

She says the school is understaffed and that the governors have consented to her obtaining some extra assistance.

From Project Gutenberg