come up short
Verb
Meaning
come up short (third-person singular simple present comes up short, present participle coming up short, simple past came up short, past participle come up short)
Synonym of fall short
They kept coming up short every time they closed out the register.
The register kept coming up short every time they closed it out.
She fished in her purse for more quarters but came up short.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Related terms
Examples
Winners live in the present tense. People who come up short are consumed with future or past. I want to be living in the now.
We cannot let our respect for the FBI blind us from the fact the FBI has sometimes come up short of our expectations.
We all lose sometimes. We fail to get what we want. Friends and loved ones leave. We make a decision we regret. We try our hardest and come up short. It's not the losing that defines us. It's how we lose. It's what we do afterward.
To come up short when you reach too far is not such a bad thing rather than not to reach at all, right?
As a writer, one has to be willing to be wrong, willing to make mistakes. I've put everything on the table and accepted the fact that I may come up short. And, if (or when) I do, that's okay.
But in this case, it's Mister Miracle who would come up short.