fall short

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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:

     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, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 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.

Usually used with preposition of.

• short-fall, shortfall

• come up short
• shortcoming

• fall short to

• short-fall, shortfall