Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To supply with fewer employees than required.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To furnish with too few staff; to staff inadequately.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • What we have allowed DEP to do is to terribly understaff this permitting process, he said.

    AP: Pennsylvania is approving gas drilling permits with scant review 2011

  • It just seems there has to be more to his refusal of this bill than thinking it would understaff the military.

    GI Bill poses challenge to McCain 2008

  • So we are understaff, shorthanded, and without going into too much detail, we've had to get really creative in gathering some eyes and ears and getting some help any which way we can to get access to these protests, to these rallies.

    CNN Transcript Jun 18, 2009 2009

  • Given the use of funds in the past eight years to wage war, invade privacy, understaff the EPA, and make it harder, not easier, for people to get the health care or education they need, we owe it to ourselves and to our children to do something today.

    TEXAS FAITH: Is it moral to pass on a huge federal debt? | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com 2009

  • The company's health care plan is still far short of the beneficial panacea the company would have us believe, and store employees are working harder than ever as the retailer continues to understaff stores.

    David Nassar: What Do Wal-Mart's Employees Have to be Thankful For? 2008

  • He reveals everything about Stevens through his body language: his stiff, servile "invisibility" when waiting on his masters; his pretensions to grandeur expressed in the wave of a cigar while lording it over the understaff; the pathetic way he touches his dying father -- only with the tip of his fingers -- like a snail too terrified to emerge from his shell.

    The Flowering Of A Late Bloomer 2008

  • An early sampling of 10 reports obtained by The New York Times yesterday chide the United Nations' Office for Iraq Program for permitting the program's major contractors to overcharge the United Nations and understaff posts at ports and borders where oil and goods were supposed to be monitored.

    THE NEWS BLOG 2005

  • There is going to be very little margin for error in this operation, Captain; but we are nevertheless taking care not to understaff you.

    My Enemy My Ally Diane Duane 2000

  • There is going to be very little margin for error in this operation, Captain; but we are nevertheless taking care not to understaff you.

    My Enemy My Ally Diane Duane 2000

  • There is going to be very little margin for error in this operation, Captain; but we are nevertheless taking care not to understaff you.

    Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages Diane Duane with Peter Morwood 2000

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