short of

short of

1. Except; but; without resorting to; up to the point of.

   He tried everything short of lending her the money himself.

   Nothing short of apologizing to your boss will do.

2. Insufficiently equipped with.

   He's a nice person, but a bit short of brains.

3. Less than.

   An Olympic athlete cannot perform at any level short of world-class.

• "Short of" is often used in full-deckisms such as "a few sandwiches short of a picnic" (i.e. "foolish" or "insane"). See a few X short of a Y in Appendix:English snowclones.

• three stops short of Dagenham