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Glite Dictionary
to come short

to come short

1 6.0
Fail to reach what is needed or expected
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌm ʃɔrt/
translation icon : quedarse corto
  • Despite her hard work, she came short in the competition and did not place in the top three.
  • come short of glory

Examples

  • Although strongly condemning the hard-line leadership in Beijing, the CDF declaration upheld the principle of nonviolence and came short of advocating the overthrow of the Chinese Communist Party.

    Academic text (1990)

  • A system of human invention, with its multitudinous exactions, will lead its advocates to judge all who come short of the prescribed human standard.

    Blog text (18)

  • All have come short of the glory of God.

  • We all going to come short when it comes to perfection.

  • We all going to come short when it comes to perfection.

  • All of us have sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

    Blog text (17)

  • For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

    Blog text (6)

  • All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

    Blog text (26)

  • Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered today, let us be afraid to distrust it, lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of reaching it.

    Blog text (20)

  • Three years later, Griffin went on to give Felix Sturm all he could handle and narrowly came short of capturing the WBA middleweight title.

    Blog text (29)

Synonyms

to fall short
vsto come short
64 3.9

Fail to reach the level people expect

means the same and differs only in wording or phrasing
to fall short of
vsto come short
25 4.4

To not reach the level people expect

has identical sense but differs only in phrasing
to underperform
vsto come short
20 5.3

To do worse than expected or needed

focuses on doing worse rather than failing to meet a required standard
to underachieve
vsto come short
1 5.5

Do less well than expected or than they can

is measured against a required standard rather than against potential

Antonyms

to succeed
846 2.0

To reach a goal after trying hard

to live up to
224 3.5

To meet what people expect of you

How Successful

to exceed
255 4.1
to excel
58 3.7
to succeed
846 2.0
to live up to
224 3.5
to come short
1 6.0

Surface Forms

come short infinitive
came short past
come short past participle
coming short present participle
comes short third person singular

Morphology

come + short

The sense 'to fail to reach a required standard' is partly derivable because 'short' conveys insufficiency and 'come' signals reaching a state or result, so a learner who knows both words could plausibly infer a meaning like 'fall short'. However, the specific phrasing is semi-idiomatic in English (more commonly 'come up short'), so the exact sense and usage are not fully predictable without exposure, making it only partially transparent to B1 learners.

Etymology

The phrase come short may come from the simple image of reaching for a high shelf or jumping and coming up a little too short to touch what you want. So come short means 'to fail to reach' a goal or to be 'not enough'.