be caught short

“How do we get resources online faster? Because we don’t want to be caught short again.”

The yen hit the strong side of 140 to the dollar as nobody wants to be caught short if there's a surprise tweak to yield controls.

"Managers remember what happened in 2021 and they don't want to be caught short."

Bibliophiles will never be caught short in Edinburgh.

Also, to keep up the pace of vaccine and therapeutic development and manufacturing, as well as diagnostic testing, Congress still needs to pass the pending pandemic relief bill, or the nation could be caught short in the autumn.