How to Use understaffed in a Sentence

understaffed

adjective
  • And then there's the fact that restaurants are still understaffed.
    Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN, 21 May 2022
  • Many are angry that the police force is understaffed, the mayor said, and want more cops on the street.
    Jennifer Peebles, ajc, 22 Sep. 2021
  • But the jails are understaffed, with the main jail being about 15% short in staffing, according to Weekes.
    Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 24 Jan. 2024
  • The records show the South Unit of the Florence prison was understaffed during the night shift on Jan. 23, when the prisoners escaped.
    Jimmy Jenkins, The Arizona Republic, 5 Dec. 2021
  • The office is understaffed, and low pay is one reason why.
    Arika Herron, Axios, 5 Sep. 2024
  • The Bethel Fire Department is understaffed right now, and Solesbee said firefighters worked hard to put out the rest of the fire.
    Olivia Ebertz, Anchorage Daily News, 12 Aug. 2022
  • Meanwhile, the county is down more than 300 social workers and is understaffed at the jail.
    cleveland, 4 June 2022
  • That’s out of a pool of 684 -- leaving many parts of the state dangerously understaffed, Thenell said.
    oregonlive, 7 Oct. 2021
  • Police union leaders say the department is understaffed and point to that as a reason for the increase in crime.
    David Hernandez, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 May 2022
  • The Haitian National Police are too understaffed and ill-equipped to combat the growing threat.
    Washington Post, 9 Oct. 2021
  • Asked he if believed the event had been understaffed and poorly planned, Scott said he was mostly involved with the creative side of of the festival.
    Ariana Garcia, Chron, 9 Dec. 2021
  • Flores claimed that the kitchen was understaffed, with only three or four workers on during lunch, forcing her to work 50 to 60 hours per week.
    Nicholas Rice, PEOPLE.com, 13 July 2021
  • And the unit was really understaffed, and getting paid time off approved could sometimes be tricky.
    Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2024
  • That’s a big difference from some of the older buildings, which have been so understaffed that some case managers have overseen as many as 85 clients at a time.
    Trisha Thadani, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 Feb. 2023
  • Workers said the restaurant was understaffed, and that the kitchen was without air conditioning for weeks.
    Tiffini Theisen, orlandosentinel.com, 13 July 2021
  • The department stated that although they were overworked and understaffed to handle the surge in homicide cases in the Charlotte metro area at the time.
    Susan Welsh, ABC News, 12 May 2022
  • This meant that many TB prevention services and clinics may have been closed or understaffed.
    Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes, 1 May 2022
  • Relief, though, likely won’t come overnight, as scaling up a system that has long been understaffed and overwhelmed could take months, or even years.
    Trisha Thadani, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 July 2021
  • The process is typically voluntary, which can be a tough sell when plants are understaffed.
    Betsy Ladyzhets, Scientific American, 30 Mar. 2023
  • No longer will an understaffed sheriff’s office shoulder the burden on its own.
    New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 12 May 2024
  • My company has been woefully understaffed for months now with no end in sight.
    Johnny C. Taylor Jr., USA TODAY, 6 Sep. 2022
  • But an official at an understaffed embassy in Kabul admitted to us that the to-do list feels daunting.
    Graeme Smith, Foreign Affairs, 11 Aug. 2023
  • Already understaffed ambulance services might be out a medic for weeks or months if they were injured.
    Marion Renault, STAT, 7 July 2023
  • By many accounts, Taiwan’s forces are poorly equipped and understaffed.
    Amy Chang Chien, New York Times, 11 Aug. 2022
  • And many are significantly understaffed, and simply don’t have the time to add data collection to their to-do list.
    Theresa Gaffney, STAT, 23 June 2022
  • The jails have been chronically understaffed for years.
    Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post, 13 June 2024
  • It is well understood that the IRS has been and continues to be both underfunded and understaffed.
    Amber Gray-Fenner, Forbes, 19 May 2022
  • The jail was understaffed, and three officers handling discharges were fill-ins who didn’t regularly work in that area.
    Adam Ferrise, cleveland, 5 Apr. 2022
  • In the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a restaurant is so understaffed that neither the owner nor general manager were able to come to the phone.
    Washington Post, 3 July 2021
  • Yet Elevations was consistently understaffed, three former staff members said.
    Tyler Kingkade, NBC News, 2 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'understaffed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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