Word.ws English Dictionary

pull up short

pull up short verb: synonym of bring up short.

Verb

pull up short (third-person singular simple present pulls up short, present participle pulling up short, simple past and past participle pulled up short)

  1. (transitive) Synonym of bring up short.
    Synonyms:
    bring up short
  2. (intransitive) To be overwhelmed or dumbfounded by events.
    • Deborah Kerdeman asks us to prepare for the occasions on which we will be “pulled up short.”2015, Mary Jo Hinsdale, Mutuality, Mystery, and Mentorship in Higher Education, page 99

Synonyms of pull up short

Forms of pull up short

third-person singular presentpulls up short
present participlepulling up short
past participlepulled up short
pastpulled up short

Questions about pull up short

What does pull up short mean?
Pull up short means synonym of bring up short.
What part of speech is pull up short?
Pull up short is a verb.
What is the past tense of pull up short?
The past tense of pull up short is pulled up short.

Words near pull up short in the dictionary

  1. pull up a chair
  2. pull up a floor
  3. pull up a pew
  4. pull up on
  5. pull up one's socks
  6. pull up short
  7. pull up stakes
  8. pull up stumps
  9. pull up the drawbridge
  10. pull up the ladder
  11. pull up your pants

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pull 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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