fall short

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɔl ʃoɹt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /foːl ʃoːt/

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

fall short (third-person singular simple present falls short, present participle falling short, simple past fell short, past participle fallen short)

1. (idiomatic) to be less satisfactory than expected; to be inadequate or insufficient
   • 1946 July and August, “The Royston Accident, G.N.R., July 3, 1866”, in Railway Magazine, page 216:

     Ample proof that the maintenance of locomotives and track in the mid-Victorian era sometimes fell far short of present-day standards is afforded by an accident which occurred on July 3, 1866, near Royston, on the Cambridge branch of the Great Northern Railway.

   • 2018 July 7, Phil McNulty, “Sweden 0-2 England”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     They have fallen short on so many occasions that an England team who rises to the occasion are worthy of the highest praise.

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 245c:

     But if being is not a whole through being affected by that affection, and there is such a thing as the whole itself, it follows that being falls short of itself.

Usage notes

Usually used with preposition of.

Derived terms

• short-fall, shortfall

Related terms

• come up short
• shortcoming

Translations

to be less satisfactory than expected; to be inadequate or insufficient

• Dutch: tekortschieten (nl)
• French: être en deçà de
• Greek:

  Ancient: ὑστερέω (husteréō)

  Ancient Greek: ἐλασσόομαι (elassóomai)

• Hungarian: elmarad (hu) (…az elvárásoktól), alatta marad (…az elvárásoknak), elégtelennek bizonyul, nem éri el, nem felel meg
• Latin: dēsum (la)
• Maori: hara
• Persian: کم آوردن (kam âvardan)
• Portuguese: não ser suficiente
• Russian: быть (ru) (bytʹ) недостаточным (ru) (nedostatočnym)

See also

• fall short to

Anagrams

• short-fall, shortfall