Caught short
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.
Contemporary Examples
Historical Examples
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- Cauls
a part of the amnion sometimes covering the head of a child at birth. greater omentum. a net lining in the back of a woman’s cap or hat. a cap or hat of net formerly worn by women. a form or plate for pressing a veneer or veneers being glued to a backing or to […]
- Caul
a part of the amnion sometimes covering the head of a child at birth. greater omentum. a net lining in the back of a woman’s cap or hat. a cap or hat of net formerly worn by women. a form or plate for pressing a veneer or veneers being glued to a backing or to […]
- Cauld
cold. Historical Examples adjective, noun a Scot word for cold
- Cauldrife
adjective (Scot) susceptible to cold; chilly lifeless
- Cauldron
a large kettle or boiler. Contemporary Examples Historical Examples noun a large pot used for boiling, esp one with handles n. c.1300, caudron, from Anglo-French caudrun, Old North French cauderon (Old French chauderon “cauldron, kettle”), from augmentative of Late Latin caldaria “cooking pot” (source of Spanish calderon, Italian calderone), from Latin calidarium “hot bath,” from […]