caught short

adj — 2 senses

adj

Etymology Compare French prendre de court.

UK, Euphemistic Needing to use the toilet at a point where no toilet facilities are available.

Some clever person came up with the apt name of little John (or big John for the optimist) for a suitably shaped container for those who were caught short.2009, Colin Cox, Short Hops Across the Atlantic, page 174:

Idiomatic, Informal unprepared or without enough of something when it is needed

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.