caught short

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Idioms and Phrases

Found to be lacking something one needs, especially money, as in Can you pay the check? I seem to be caught short . This idiom uses short in the sense of “lacking money,” a usage dating from the early 1500s.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

caught in the middle caul

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