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What is "understaffed"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
understaffed
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The cafeteria is a little understaffed.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He was kept busy writing lectures for he found the faculty grossly understaffed.
▪ In recent years, the Inspectorate has been seen as understaffed and underfunded and has allegedly suffered from low morale.
▪ Lack of finance inevitably meant that the College was understaffed.
▪ Officers at Long Lartin argue they're understaffed since the abolition of overtime.
▪ On the other hand, some staff may have underestimated dependency in order that homes did not appear understaffed.
▪ Rush hour crowding was a serious hazard, and the station was 39 percent understaffed.
▪ The pollution inspectorate, which is expected to oversee the process, is currently understaffed and personnel are suffering from low morale.
▪ They are cheerful, competent, overworked and understaffed.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
understaffed

Underhanded \Un"der*hand`ed\, a.

  1. Underhand; clandestine.

  2. Insufficiently provided with hands or workers; short-handed; sparsely populated; obsolete in this sense, short-handed or understaffed being the preferrred term.

    Norway . . . might defy the world, . . . but it is much underhanded now.
    --Coleridge.

Wiktionary
understaffed

a. having an inadequate number of workers or assistants

WordNet
understaffed

adj. inadequate in number of workers or assistants etc.; "they're rather short-handed at the moment"; "overcrowded and understaffed hospitals" [syn: short-handed, short-staffed, undermanned]

Usage examples of "understaffed".

Cloud Peaks and the Wood of Sharp Teeth to prey on the fat caravans that were overfilled with cargo and understaffed by mercenary warriors.

Jeremy gone returned with the added weight of knowing that missing her chance with him might mean that more men like this poor wraith were doomed to miserable deaths in understaffed, undersupplied hospitals.

She would have sworn the entire city of Anara-Zel had assembled outside the building in which she was setting up her woefully understaffed and undersupplied mobile hospital.

None of the miserable fleabitten overpriced understaffed crowded smelly firetraps near the river.

Many Castles remained understaffed or poorly operated, resulting in growing customer discontent.

I come back here”—thank God Leo’s men hadn’t followed him then—“and Leo the freaking Claw toddles off to see his business partner and says, ‘Yo, yo, yo, I think I’ve found Bashir’s missing girl, but I’m a little understaffed.

He was understaffed and overpressured, and now, with the harsh desert summer almost here with its promise of death for the unprepared, one more loss would mean the end of the mission.