Word.ws English Dictionary

brought up short

brought up short is the simple past and past participle of bring up short.

Meaning of bring up short

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)

  1. 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
  2. (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
    Synonyms:
    pull up short

Questions about brought up short

What is brought up short the simple past and past participle of?
Brought up short is the simple past and past participle of bring up short.

Words near brought up short in the dictionary

  1. brought to the table
  2. brought together
  3. brought under
  4. brought up
  5. brought up against
  6. brought up short
  7. brought up the rear
  8. brought up to
  9. brought up to a bitter
  10. brought upon
  11. brought with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brought up short (page history and authors); 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.

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