caught short

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

caught short

Where it comes from

Compare French prendre de court.

adjective

UK, euphemistic, not comparable Needing to use the toilet at a point where no toilet facilities are available. Some clever person came up with the apt name of little John (or big John for the optimist) for a suitably shaped container for those who were caught short.
Similar: taken short
idiomatic, informal, not comparable unprepared or without enough of something when it is needed

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"caught short." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/caught%20short. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

caught short. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/caught%20short

Chicago

"caught short." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/caught%20short.

BibTeX

@misc{caught_short_2026,
  title = {caught short},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/caught%20short},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}