short-staffed
adjective
: having fewer than the usual number of people available
The department is short-staffed.
a short-staffed hospital
Examples of short-staffed in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
These fast-food places are busy and short-staffed.
—
Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 13 Oct. 2025
Staffing shortages have been reported at air traffic control facilities across the country this week as some controllers have stayed home, however Atlanta was not listed as short-staffed in Friday evening’s operations plan.
—Aaron Cooper, CNN Money, 10 Oct. 2025
The Federal Aviation Administration said in an advisory that air traffic control facilities in Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Nashville, Chicago, Houston and Boston were short-staffed.
—Karoun Demirjian, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2025
The state’s extreme reliance on overtime had been one of the strikers’ chief complaints, and now the prisons were even more short-staffed, with only about two-thirds of officer jobs filled.
—Jennifer Gonnerman, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for short-staffed
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 13 Oct. 2025
Staffing shortages have been reported at air traffic control facilities across the country this week as some controllers have stayed home, however Atlanta was not listed as short-staffed in Friday evening’s operations plan.
—Aaron Cooper, CNN Money, 10 Oct. 2025
The Federal Aviation Administration said in an advisory that air traffic control facilities in Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Nashville, Chicago, Houston and Boston were short-staffed.
—Karoun Demirjian, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2025
The state’s extreme reliance on overtime had been one of the strikers’ chief complaints, and now the prisons were even more short-staffed, with only about two-thirds of officer jobs filled.
—Jennifer Gonnerman, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for short-staffed
Cite this Entry
“Short-staffed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/short-staffed. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share