bring up short

bring up short verb: to arrest (someone or something's) forward motion; to halt before a goal is reached.

Verb

bring up short (third-person singular simple present brings up short, present participle bringing up short, simple past and past participle brought up short)

To arrest (someone or something's) forward motion; to halt before a goal is reached.
- The soldiers spurred their horses forward but were brought up short by Lieutenant Montoya.2009, Matthew Baca, The Antiquarian, →ISBN, page 145
- Frowning, Guld stepped forward, but was brought up short by the guardsman's hand.2010, Steven Erikson, The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, →ISBN
(figuratively) To startle or interrupt (someone), causing them to stop or reevaluate what they are doing.
- I suppose things can go well for just so long before events bring you up short.2000, Donald S. Vogel, Memories and Images: The World of Donald Vogel and Valley House Gallery, →ISBN
- Some of us are lucky enough to have students who ask sharp questions that bring us up short and force us back to basic and difficult issues.2006, Richard Wilk, Home Cooking in the Global Village, →ISBN
Synonyms:

pull up short

third-person singular present	brings up short
present participle	bringing up short
past participle	brought up short
past	brought up short

What does bring up short mean?: Bring up short means to arrest (someone or something's) forward motion; to halt before a goal is reached.
What part of speech is bring up short?: Bring up short is a verb.
What is the past tense of bring up short?: The past tense of bring up short is brought up short.

Adapted from Wiktionary: bring up short (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “bring up short.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bring_up_short. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.