fall short
verbUS /fɔl ʃoɹt/ · AU /foːl ʃoːt/
1
Idiomatic To be less satisfactory than expected; to be inadequate or insufficient.
- I did my best, but fell far short of the score cutoff.
- 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.1946 July and August, “The Royston Accident, G.N.R., July 3, 1866”, in Railway Magazine, page 216:
2 more examples
- They have fallen short on so many occasions that an England team who rises to the occasion are worthy of the highest praise.2018 July 7, Phil McNulty, “Sweden 0-2 England”, in BBC Sport:
- 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.2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 245c:
- Derived terms
- shortfall
- Related terms
- come up short, shortcoming