Idiom
caught short
Meaning
unprepared or without enough of something when it is needed
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I was caught short without any cash at the store.”
“The sudden rainstorm caught us short, as we had left our umbrellas in the car.”
“The company was caught short by the unexpected market crash, leaving them unable to meet their financial obligations to investors.”
Examples
simple
“I was caught short without any cash at the store.”
contextual
“The sudden rainstorm caught us short, as we had left our umbrellas in the car.”
complex
“The company was caught short by the unexpected market crash, leaving them unable to meet their financial obligations to investors.”
Origin
The English expression is compared to the French phrase *prendre de court*, which functions as a linguistic parallel for the condition of being unprepared or disadvantaged by a sudden lack of time or resources.
Key words
Related idioms
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