come up short

come up short — phrasal verb

  • comes up short3rd person singular
  • coming up short-ing form
  • came up shortpast simple
  • come up shortpast participle

1. to fail to reach an expected amount, standard, or goal, especially after effort

1.片語動詞B2
釋義

to fail to reach an expected amount, standard, or goal, especially after effort or when enough was needed.

例句

The team's fundraising came up short of their £10,000 target by nearly half.

come up short of + target amount

Arjun studied hard for the exam but still came up short of the passing score.

同義詞
  • fall short

    more common in British English; interchangeable in most contexts

  • be insufficient

    more formal and less idiomatic; used in technical or academic writing

  • miss the mark

    slightly informal; often used when a result fails to meet expectations rather than a precise amount

反義詞

文法句型

come up short

come up short of + [amount / goal / expectation]

用法筆記

Intransitive — there is no direct object after the verb. The shortfall is introduced with 'of'. Commonly used in business, sports, and academic contexts to describe failure to meet a target or benchmark.

常見錯誤

❌The team came up short the goal.
✅The team came up short of the goal.
💡'of' is required before the thing that was not reached.
❌She came up short the money she needed.
✅She came up short of the money she needed.
💡same rule: 'of' introduces the shortfall.