fall short

Verb

Meaning

fail to meet (expectations or standards)

Source: WordNet

Synonyms

fall collapse fail break down abort backfire miscarry fall flat go down fall through go wrong misfire come short fall down bite the dust

Show all synonyms

Antonyms

accomplish make do pay off outshout

Hypernyms

disappoint let down

Examples

Say not 'a small event' Why 'small' Costs it more pain that this ye call A 'great event' should come to pass From that Untwine me from the mass Of deeds which make up life, one deed Power shall fall short in or exceed. Robert Browning

The vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate. Aristotle

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short. Confucius

It is indeed very possible, that the Persons we laugh at may in the main of their Characters be much wiser Men than our selves; but if they would have us laugh at them, they must fall short of us in those Respects which stir up this Passion. Joseph Addison

Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end. Poetry is when some of them fall short of it. Jeremy Bentham

To go beyond is as bad as to fall short. Chinese Proverb

Close letter words and terms

Fall River Mills fall rope fall season fall short of fall short of expectations fall sick