WORD POWER
A shot at short
Prerana Trehan

Good teachers are certainly in short supply. Take the one who teaches us physics, for example. His name is Balram Sharma, but we call him The Bull for short. He has a short fuse and is always short with us. He believes that what errant students need is a short sharp shock to make them behave more responsibly. He also has the annoying habit of giving short-cut explanations of complicated physical phenomenon when, at the end of a class, he is running short of time and wants to cut a long-winded explanations short. If we dare to ask him something we don’t understand, he makes short work of our questions. Our request for a few extra classes before the exams are always given short shrift by him.

He often asks us to give in difficult assignments at short notice and when the results fall short of his expectations, short of dragging us into the principal’s office by our ears he does everything he can to make his displeasure obvious.

One day when he was giving us an obviously incorrect explanation of a theory and one of the brighter ones among us — though some say she is short on common sense —pulled him up short, he yelled at her so loudly that he was soon short of breath. From then on he has always been short and to the point with her.

In short, his classes are nothing short of sheer torture.

In short supply: scarce, not enough available

For short: as an abbreviation

A short fuse: if someone has a short fuse, they become angry quickly and often

Be short with someone: be abrupt, unfriendly

A short sharp shock: a type of punishment that is quick and severe

A short cut: a quicker or easier way of going somewhere or doing something

Be/run short of something: not have enough of something, e.g. time, money, food etc

Cut something short: bring something to an end before the expected time

Make short work of something: to deal with or finish something quickly

Give someone or something short shrift: to give very little attention to someone or something, either because you are not interested in them or because you are annoyed with them (usually passive)

At short notice: with very little warning, shortly before something has to be done etc.

Fall short of one’s hopes/expectations: be inadequate, disappointing, not as much/as good as one had hoped or expected

Short of something/doing something: expect, apart from

Be short on something: to have less of something than you should have

Pull something/someone up short: interrupt someone when speaking, often in order to correct

Short of breath: unable to breathe easily

Short and to the point: (a speech, order, letter etc.) short, direct and clear, possible abrupt

In short: briefly, in a few words, in summary

Little/nothing short of something: little/less than something

(Reference: English Idioms by Jennifer Seidl and W. McMordie)