Dic: Be short on, Be(stop, fall, go) short of

18. PHRASE : V inflects | If someone or something is short on a particular good quality, they do not have as much of it as you think they should have.

• The proposals were short on detail.

Cf: short of

6. ADJ : v-link ADJ, usu ADJ of n | If you are short of something or if it is short, you do not have enough of it. If you are running short of something or if it is running short, you do not have much of it left.

• Her father's illness left the family short of money.
• Supplies of everything are unreliable, food is short.

7. ADJ : v-link ADJ of n | If someone or something is or stops short of a place, they have not quite reached it. If they are or fall short of an amount, they have not quite achieved it.

• He stopped a hundred yards short of the building.

14. PHRASE : V inflects, oft PHR of n | If you go short of something, especially food, you do not have as much of it as you want or need.

• Some people may manage their finances badly and therefore have to go short of essentials.

9. PHRASE : V inflects, PHR -ing/n | If someone stops short of doing something, they come close to doing it but do not actually do it.

• He stopped short of explicitly criticizing the government.

...... Cobuild

cf. stop short of doing something

1. to decide not to do something

• I stopped short of telling him what I really felt about him.

2. to almost do something, or partly do something without completing it

• The punishments are quite severe but they stop short of losing your job.

Usage notes: sometimes used in the forms stop well short of or stop just short of:

• The government is stopping just short of threatening to go to war.

... Cambrdige-American Idioms