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shortage Definition

☆ short·age (-ij)

noun

a deficiency in the quantity or amount needed or expected, or the extent of this; deficit

shortage Synonyms

shortage

n.

deficit, deficiency, short fall, scant supply, curtailment; see also lack 1.

shortage Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • manpower: Can a security company base a policy on published police response times or local known shortages of police manpower?
  • midwife: Overworked, and underpaid, Dutch midwives point out that, in recent years, there has been an increasing shortage of new midwives.
  • dentist: There is a risk that these targets will not be net and shortages of dentists will continue.

Converse of object

  • alleviate: Helping healthcare assistants to gain higher qualifications could alleviate the serious shortage of nurses in Britain.
  • tackle: Ask your local councilors what they are doing to tackle the housing shortage.
  • overcome: And by establishing national, coordinated networks of tissue banks, they can overcome the shortage of human material for research and testing.
  • exacerbate: They also believe these policies " prevent willing and healthy members of the community from giving blood and exacerbate the current blood shortage.
  • relieve: Zimbabweans are adopting increasingly desperate measures China has signed a $ 1.3bn deal with Zimbabwe to help relieve an acute shortage of energy.
  • worsen: The large population movements in 1969 and 1971, described above, had the effect of worsening the housing shortage in West Belfast.

Adjective modifier

  • acute: In some areas there is an acute shortage of labor.
  • chronic: In some areas, this reflects a chronic shortage of doctors.
  • severe: The early 1960s had seen severe food shortages across the whole of India.
  • dire: At present there is a dire shortage with approximately one interpreter to every thousand BSL users.
  • desperate: In the South of England, a desperate shortage of housing has created areas of high demand.
  • serious: The Clansman's main failing is its serious shortage of open deck areas.

Noun used with modifier

  • skill: A skill gap is different from a skill shortage.
  • manpower: Hence the Electoral Commission had a significant manpower shortage.
  • labor: The labor shortages in the booming economy of South-East England have attracted many workers from abroad.
  • food: I hear the driver ask the first farmer, " In times of food shortage, which animal would you sell last?
  • wartime: I suppose it is amazing that they were printed at all, in view of the wartime shortages.