Word.ws English Dictionary

short end of the stick

short end of the stick noun: a situation, opportunity, or outcome which is less favorable than situations, opportunities, or outcomes experienced by or available to others.

Noun

short end of the stick (plural short ends of the stick)

  1. (idiomatic) A situation, opportunity, or outcome which is less favorable than situations, opportunities, or outcomes experienced by or available to others.
    • Near-synonyms: shitty stick; shortest straw; raw deal
    • Soviet emphasis on high-yield weapons might give them a megaton surplus. . . . We might then be on the short end of the stick.1963 April, Ralph E. Lapp, "The Strategy of Overkill," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, p. 10 (Google preview)

short end of the stick meaning in Bengali

short end of the stick in Bengali

একটি পরিস্থিতি, সুযোগ, ফলাফলের তুলনায় কম অনুকূল

Examples of short end of the stick in a sentence

  • “[W]orking people are sick and tired of the bosses getting million-dollar bonuses and the workers getting the short end of the stick.”2010 July 9, Bob Herbert, “Restoring a Hallowed Vision”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 Apr 2014:
  • Does this mean Middlesbrough get the short end of the stick, with what will surely be the most ramshackle show of the tour?2012 September 2, Tim Jonze, “Africa Express: rolling coverage”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 10 Apr 2014:
  • I learned the hard way that people who ditch cable TV still get the short end of the stick.2021 August 5, Shira Ovide, “YouTube Is Underwhelming”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Synonyms of short end of the stick

Forms of short end of the stick

pluralshort ends of the stick
alternative formshort end

Origin of short end of the stick

Unknown. Attested since the 1500s, suggested by one theory to be a minced oath of shit end of the stick, as an 1840s cite uses crappy, but this theory is unlikely. Possibly also derived from a previous literal meaning, as wrong end of the stick is even older, though the precise literal meaning is unclear.

Questions about short end of the stick

What does short end of the stick mean?
Short end of the stick means a situation, opportunity, or outcome which is less favorable than situations, opportunities, or outcomes experienced by or available to others.
What is short end of the stick in Bengali?
Short end of the stick in Bengali is একটি পরিস্থিতি, সুযোগ, ফলাফলের তুলনায় কম অনুকূল. See Short end of the stick meaning in Bengali.
How do you use short end of the stick in a sentence?
“[W]orking people are sick and tired of the bosses getting million-dollar bonuses and the workers getting the short end of the stick.”
What part of speech is short end of the stick?
Short end of the stick is a noun.
What is the plural of short end of the stick?
The plural of short end of the stick is short ends of the stick.

Words near short end of the stick in the dictionary

  1. short drinks
  2. short drop
  3. short drops
  4. short e
  5. short end
  6. short end of the stick
  7. short ends
  8. short ends of the stick
  9. short ess
  10. short esses
  11. short exact sequence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: short end of the stick (page history and authors); short end of the stick (Bengali Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-short end of the stick.ogg.

Cite this entry: “short end of the stick.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/short_end_of_the_stick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.