short-handed

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

short-handed
    adj 1: 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}, {understaffed}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Short-handed \Short`-hand"ed\, a.
   Short of, or lacking the regular number of, servants or
   helpers.
   [1913 Webster]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Underhanded \Un"der*hand`ed\, a.
   1. Underhand; clandestine.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Insufficiently provided with hands or workers;
      short-handed; sparsely populated; obsolete in this sense,
      {short-handed} or {understaffed} being the preferrred
      term.
      [1913 Webster +JG]

            Norway . . . might defy the world, . . . but it is
            much underhanded now.                 --Coleridge.
      [1913 Webster]

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

27 Moby Thesaurus words for "shorthanded":
      bare-handed, beggarly, empty-handed, famished, half-starved,
      ill off, ill-equipped, ill-furnished, ill-provided, impoverished,
      on short commons, pauperized, poor, short, starved, starveling,
      starving, underfed, underhanded, undermanned, undernourished,
      understaffed, unfed, unprovided, unreplenished, unsupplied,
      wanting

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