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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
shortage
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a food shortage
▪ He remembered the food shortages of the war years.
a labour shortage
▪ Immigrants came into the country to fill the labour shortage.
a water shortage
▪ There is a severe water shortage in many parts of the country.
an energy shortage
▪ California experienced energy shortages that in turn led to power outages.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
acute
▪ In both areas there is an acute shortage of expertise at the Garden.
▪ And once again the acute shortage of materials was noticeable.
▪ They acknowledged that there was an acute shortage of nurses throughout the country and concluded that a training scheme should be organised.
▪ The acute shortage of time was a problem that everyone felt.
▪ The decision came in response to an acute fuel shortage which worsened during December.
▪ Although recently the Association has been enabled to take on some 250 full-time archaeologists, there is still an acute shortage.
▪ Boston employers are facing an acute labour shortage with potentially serious consequences for economic growth.
▪ Will he accept that there is indeed an acute shortage of intensive care beds for children?
chronic
▪ One reason may be the chronic shortage of funds that requires many rural schools to make up their budgets by irregular means.
▪ This religious ban compounded the chronic shortage of grazing land.
▪ Increasingly widespread use probably accentuated a chronic shortage of coin.
▪ The chronic shortage of currency for the acquisition of contemporary foreign publications has been cited as justification.
▪ But still there was a chronic shortage of trained crews.
▪ Meanwhile, there is a chronic shortage of funds.
▪ Why did this chronic shortage of rural council housing persist?
critical
▪ Doctors' leaders joined calls for the Government to acknowledge that the outbreak had exposed a critical shortage of hospital beds.
▪ Industries with critical labor shortages launched youth apprenticeships as a way to recruit skilled employees.
▪ With critical power shortages throughout the region, the timing could not be worse for a looming emergency drought declaration.
▪ Tucson now faces a critical shortage of workers for optics companies like Breault's.
▪ No critical shortages or gluts livened things up this year for traders in the futures pits at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
desperate
▪ Surely London employers were suffering from a desperate shortage of school-leavers?
▪ Again the desperate shortage of materials and the home-made nature of the goods was evident.
▪ While toy sales here have hit a record high they face a desperate shortage of clean water.
general
▪ This success suggested that the general housing shortage was now considerably eased, and attention returned to slum clearance.
▪ Of course, a general liquidity shortage can not be alleviated by banks withdrawing loans from each other.
serious
▪ This declared that there was a serious shortage of adequate houses in many areas, but recommended no legislation.
▪ But they have led to a serious shortage of low-income housing.
▪ Moreover, there were ample indications of serious personnel shortages in many of the hospitals of Tanganyika.
▪ Larger urban dioceses in the Northeast, including the Archdiocese of Boston, have yet to experience any serious shortage of priests.
severe
▪ Vitamins and minerals: do you need more? Severe shortage of vitamins and minerals is rare.
▪ Researchers said La Jolla is experiencing a severe parking shortage in its downtown area.
▪ When there is a severe food shortage, the first to suffer are the larger animals.
▪ This change could have created a severe shortage of corneas and other tissues in California, said Ward.
▪ Towards the end of the postwar boom, an imbalance between accumulation and the labour supply led to increasingly severe labour shortage.
▪ Thus the plan typically results in substantial oversupply of some goods and severe shortages of others.
▪ Meanwhile Kishinev is experiencing severe shortages.
▪ The move followed warnings that the island would face a severe water shortage if further development continued.
■ NOUN
cash
▪ Payment had been held up because of a cash shortage.
▪ A strike over food service in 1910 coincided with a cash shortage in construction funds.
▪ The cash shortage in the money market is, in this way, passed to the discount houses.
▪ Morrison Knudsen and lenders agree on a plan to avoid a cash shortage.
▪ Tulliver is well off, but he now faces a cash shortage.
energy
▪ A world energy shortage is far more dangerous and could even lead to wars.
▪ The coalition partners predict further elections in six to eight months, and the energy shortage threatens to hamper their reform plans.
food
▪ When there is a severe food shortage, the first to suffer are the larger animals.
▪ The international response to the floods and the food shortage has, however, been minimal.
▪ During periods of relative food shortage males tend to move less; dispersion evidently reduces competition for resources.
▪ It was said that this was vital to keep food prices down, and avoid grave food shortages.
▪ First, is it the case that hunger and food shortages are the result of population pressure?
▪ The report notes that a combination of soil degradation and poor rainfall have increased food shortages and poverty.
▪ Protests over food shortages forced the Government to implement rationing schemes first devised by the Labour and Co-operative movement.
▪ And at a time of frequent harvest failures and recurrent food shortage, exports of grain were being ruthlessly forced upwards.
fuel
▪ A fuel shortage got the holiday season off to a rocky start, and promises to cause further problems this month.
▪ The decision came in response to an acute fuel shortage which worsened during December.
▪ He had expected to get a $ 100m loan to ease the fuel shortage.
▪ They said there was a fuel shortage.
▪ It rarely suffers the power cuts, fuel shortages and subsiding roads that plague Lagos and other big cities.
housing
▪ In any case the number of dwellings actually completed by 1950 was pathetically small, and housing shortages were felt acutely elsewhere.
▪ The situation was made worse by the 1986 earthquake, which exacerbated the housing shortage and destroyed or damaged numerous schools.
▪ This would include tackling the problems of housing shortages and population growth.
▪ Because of the extreme housing shortage it's a first-come, first-served, first-secured process.
▪ This success suggested that the general housing shortage was now considerably eased, and attention returned to slum clearance.
▪ All signs of a housing shortage had disappeared by 1963.
▪ Moreover, the fundamental problem remains that of the housing shortage.
▪ These were years of housing shortage and this was frequently the reason.
labor
▪ There was concern about creating a labor shortage that would have imperiled the war effort.
▪ Industries with critical labor shortages launched youth apprenticeships as a way to recruit skilled employees.
▪ Despite some scattered labor shortages, however, the taut job market has yet to spark significant inflation pressures.
▪ Moreover, Hilti could see itself plagued by labor shortages far into the future.
▪ That was certainly the case in Wisconsin, where labor shortages propelled the printing industry into a new relationship with the schools.
▪ Wages only rise if there are labor shortages.
▪ Unemployment is so low that spot labor shortages are cropping up around the country.
▪ Wages go up when there are labor shortages, not when there are labor surpluses.
labour
▪ This is no coincidence: accelerated accumulation, combined with labour shortage, was the basic cause of the profits squeeze.
▪ Real wages had to rise somewhere if less efficient plant was to be scrapped and the labour shortage contained.
▪ Boston employers are facing an acute labour shortage with potentially serious consequences for economic growth.
▪ This divergence would be most easily explained by a rising population and a consequent labour shortage.
▪ The money wage increases which workers won exceeded those required to generate enough scrapping to ease labour shortage.
▪ Major problems facing the diversification plan included a lack of infrastructure and a labour shortage.
▪ However, the co-existence of unemployment and labour shortage in different places is a cost to the whole society.
▪ The labour shortage served to drive wages up by 6.4 percent, against productivity growth of only 3.4 percent.
manpower
▪ Even if there were no reform of nurse education, a manpower shortage is inevitable and must therefore be addressed.
power
▪ The paradox is all the stranger because the power shortage has had predictably grave consequences for economic growth.
▪ With critical power shortages throughout the region, the timing could not be worse for a looming emergency drought declaration.
▪ Even rich countries are discovering this: witness California's power shortages, caused by a botched privatisation.
▪ Since Glenallen Hill went down with his wrist injury, the Giants have been suffering a power shortage.
skill
▪ Last September the Government relaxed rules on foreign workers coming to Britain to combat skills shortages.
▪ A skills shortage exists and the reintegration of former freedom fighters has proved difficult, with many incidents of undisciplined conduct.
▪ We will fund crash courses in the main areas of skill shortage, aimed in particular at the long-term unemployed.
▪ The Government need to take action on four issues, the first of which is the skills shortage.
▪ Both ministries are acutely aware that Britain is suffering from skills shortages that could damage the economy and hold back business.
▪ The government, they say, is bluffing when it claims that TECs are intended to tackle Britain's persistent skills shortage.
water
▪ Examples of water shortages are seen in the United Kingdom fairly regularly, in spite of the country's traditional rainy reputation.
▪ Many years ago, the City of New York suffered from a potentially troublesome water shortage.
▪ Power outages and water shortages were routine occurrences.
▪ If not, how have people historically coped with water shortages?
▪ Already regional water shortages are causing disruptions and are predicted to become the cause of wars in the near future.
▪ They have been warning of impending water shortages in the worst affected areas for more than six months.
▪ In the years that followed, Fred Eaton would become messianic about the water shortage he saw approaching.
■ VERB
cause
▪ Headteachers began filling empty reception class places with under-fives in the Seventies because the low birth-rate had caused a shortage of five-year-olds.
▪ The root causes of the horse shortage are year-round racing and a mass exodus of owners and breeders from racing.
▪ Surely then, until Third World populations decline through national programmes of family planning, population pressure will cause hunger and shortages.
▪ He felt the major risk after the war was not unemployment but inflation caused by shortages of goods.
▪ These include the physiological comfort of pleasant working conditions and the avoidance of stress caused by illness or shortage of money.
create
▪ It appeared to be targeted particularly at black marketeers and speculators hoarding goods to create artificial shortages.
▪ There was concern about creating a labor shortage that would have imperiled the war effort.
▪ Growth continued to create shortages that expanded the black market.
▪ This change could have created a severe shortage of corneas and other tissues in California, said Ward.
ease
▪ It also might ease shortages on the San Diego side of the border.
▪ He had expected to get a $ 100m loan to ease the fuel shortage.
▪ The money wage increases which workers won exceeded those required to generate enough scrapping to ease labour shortage.
face
▪ While toy sales here have hit a record high they face a desperate shortage of clean water.
▪ He says the country is not facing a shortage of farm workers, according to his spokesman Allen Kay.
▪ Boston employers are facing an acute labour shortage with potentially serious consequences for economic growth.
▪ This sprawling town faces no shortage of dilemmas as it oozes toward the millennium.
▪ Employment Prospects Employment prospects are excellent, as the industry is facing a long-term shortage of academically trained managers.
▪ Tulliver is well off, but he now faces a cash shortage.
▪ The move followed warnings that the island would face a severe water shortage if further development continued.
▪ Tucson now faces a critical shortage of workers for optics companies like Breault's.
house
▪ This year it proclaimed the housing shortage as the major challenge to poor and working-class communities in the Bay Area.
lead
▪ By keeping prices artificially low, rent control leads both to a shortage of units and to landlords skimping on maintenance.
▪ But they have led to a serious shortage of low-income housing.
overcome
▪ A number of proposals both at the unofficial and the official level were made to overcome the shortage of finance.
relieve
▪ Up to the late 1950s this inflow of dollars was generally welcome as it relieved the earlier shortages.
report
▪ Wage and retail prices were steady, though manufacturers reported worker shortages and rising costs for some materials.
suffer
▪ Surely London employers were suffering from a desperate shortage of school-leavers?
▪ Since Glenallen Hill went down with his wrist injury, the Giants have been suffering a power shortage.
▪ Unlike the plankton of the open seas the intertidal zones suffer no shortage of nutrients.
▪ That's why when schools are suffering a shortage of teachers, there is a surge of early retirements among staff.
▪ Both Rusia Petroleum and Sidanco are suffering from shortage of capital.
▪ The museum suffers from shortage of space and there is talk of its contents being moved to another site.
▪ Both ministries are acutely aware that Britain is suffering from skills shortages that could damage the economy and hold back business.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Parts of Britain are suffering water shortages after the unusually dry summer.
▪ The drop in the birth rate 20 years ago has created a severe shortage of workers.
▪ There is a shortage of nurses and doctors in this area.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A mentally deficient or unstable individual was not wanted on the line, even if there was a shortage of men.
▪ Manila is a city that runs on gossip, and there is no shortage of it at the moment.
▪ Meanwhile job hunters have been complaining that there is a shortage of jobs.
▪ The accident, as it turns out, was a broken mirror and more than likely a shortage of time.
▪ The main reason is the shortage of real attractions.
▪ There is no shortage of objections to both causalism and functionalism.
▪ They have too few people to boss about, but no shortage of guns and grievances.
▪ With critical power shortages throughout the region, the timing could not be worse for a looming emergency drought declaration.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Shortage

Shortage \Short"age\, n. Amount or extent of deficiency, as determined by some requirement or standard; as, a shortage in money accounts.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
shortage

1862, American English, from short + -age.

Wiktionary
shortage

n. A lack or deficiency; an insufficient amount.

WordNet
shortage
  1. n. the property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required [syn: deficit, shortfall]

  2. an acute insufficiency [syn: dearth, famine]

Wikipedia
Shortage

In economics, a shortage or excess demand is when the demand for a product or service exceeds its supply in a market. It is the opposite of an excess supply ( surplus).

Usage examples of "shortage".

There were no shortages in the Allegiancy capital yet, though prices were soaring.

For nearly a century, the shortage of legally dissectable bodies pitted the anatomist against the private citizen.

Apparently, unlike our artificially developed oral contraceptives, these have no harmful side-effects, and are chiefly used in periods of drought or food shortages, so that children are not born who cannot be fed.

Agudists from Budapest, a shortage of cash obliged Perl to go outside the Zionist orbit for paying customers so that one of his stranded Betar contingents might continue its trip.

Although there is no shortage of urban blight and despair in Rochester, it is regularly deemed by pollsters to be one of the safest medium-sized cities in the nation.

With Sarmon still lying in a heap where Xanthon had knocked him, she would have to climb up to the rampart and flee to the gatehouse, where there would be no shortage of war wizards ready to teleport her back to Arabel.

I ran the simulations dozens of ways, altering variables such as subpopulation movements, materials shortages, and shifts in standards of living.

In normal times, there would have been fruit and food among the offerings, but with war shortages Otake-san tempered his traditionalism with common sense.

Guardians unfurnished this room some time ago, and we have a certain shortage of chairs.

And being located right next to an antihydrogen processing facility, he very much doubted there would be any power shortages here.

Tiber rose just enough to ensure that some of the public latrines backfilled and floated excrement out of their doors, a vegetable shortage developed when the Campus Martius and the Campus Vaticanus were covered with a few inches of water, and shoddily built high-rise insulae began to crumble into total collapse or suddenly manifested huge cracks in walls and foundations.

On top of this, industrial production began to decline, first because of a shortage of raw materials, and then because the dangerous bees began to harass ever larger areas.

The article went on to say that Bonita Vista had its own wells, so it was not tied to the Corban water supply and was not suffering the same shortage.

As there is no shortage of dealers in Paris anxious to take them, Boulonnais has instructed me that if they cannot be shown immediately here, then I am to return them to France.

But the events of the last few years, with the addition of the LANTIRN and the shortage of strike aircraft due to downsizing, had forced the Tomcat community to take a lead role in strike warfare.