insufficient

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: in=suf=fi=cient

CIDE DICTIONARY

insufficient, a. [L. insufficiens, -entis. See In- not, and Sufficient.].

•  Not sufficient; not enough; inadequate to any need, use, or purpose; as, the provisions are insufficient in quantity, and defective in quality.  Cowper.  [1913 Webster]
•  Wanting in strength, power, ability, capacity, or skill; incompetent; incapable; unfit; as, a person insufficient to discharge the duties of an office.

Syn. -- Inadequate; scanty; incommensurate; unequal; unfit; incompetent; incapable; inefficient.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

insufficient, adj. not sufficient; inadequate.

Derivative

insufficiently adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. LL insufficiens (as IN-(1), SUFFICIENT)

THESAURUS

insufficient

asymmetric, base, defective, deficient, disappointing, disheartening, disparate, displeasing, disproportionate, dissatisfactory, failing, found wanting, half-assed, ill-matched, ill-sorted, imperfect, inadequate, incommensurate, incompetent, incomplete, inferior, irregular, lacking, little, maladroit, mean, mediocre, minus, mismatched, not comparable, not enough, not good enough, not in it, odd, out of it, out of proportion, petty, scant, scanty, scarce, shabby, short, short of, shy, skew, skewed, small, too little, trivial, unequal, unequal to, uneven, unfulfilling, ungratifying, unqualified, unreached, unsatisfactory, unsatisfying, unskillful, unsufficing, wanting

ROGET THESAURUS

insufficient

Insufficiency

N insufficiency, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompetence, deficiency, imperfection, shortcoming, paucity, stint, scantiness, none to spare, bare subsistence, scarcity, dearth, want, need, lack, poverty, exigency, inanition, starvation, famine, drought, dole, mite, pittance, short allowance, short commons, half rations, banyan day, emptiness, poorness, depletion, vacancy, flaccidity, ebb tide, low water, a beggarly account of empty boxes, indigence, insolvency, drain of resources, impoverish, stint, put on short allowance, do insufficiently, scotch the snake, Adj, insufficient, inadequate, too little, not enough, unequal to, incompetent, weighed in the balance and found wanting, perfunctory, deficient, wanting imperfect, ill-furnished, ill-provided, ill- stored, ill-off, slack, at a low ebb, empty, vacant, bare, short of, out of, destitute of, devoid of, bereft of, denuded of, dry, drained, unprovided, unsupplied, unfurnished, unreplenished, unfed, unstored, untreasured, empty-handed, meager, poor, thin, scrimp, sparing, spare, stinted, starved, starving, halfstarved, famine-stricken, famished, jejune, scant, scarce, not to be had, not to be had for love or money, not to be had at any price, scurvy, stingy, at the end of one's tether, without resources, in want, in debt, insufficiently, in default of, for want of, failing, semper avarus eget.

Failure

N failure, nonsuccess, nonfulfillment, dead failure, successlessness, abortion, miscarriage, brutum fulmen, labor in vain, no go, inefficacy, inefficaciousness, vain attempt, ineffectual attempt, abortive attempt, abortive efforts, flash in the pan, lame and impotent conclusion, frustration, slip 'twixt cup and lip, blunder, fault, omission, miss, oversight, slip, trip, stumble, claudication, footfall, false step, wrong step, faux pas, titubation, b_evue, faute, lurch, botchery, scrape, mess, fiasco, breakdown, flunk, mishap, split, collapse, smash, blow, explosion, repulse, rebuff, defeat, rout, overthrow, discomfiture, beating, drubbing, quietus, nonsuit, subjugation, checkmate, stalemate, fool's mate, fall, downfall, ruin, perdition, wreck, deathblow, bankruptcy, losing game, affaire flamb_ee, victim, bankrupt, flunker, flunky, unsuccessful, successless, failing, tripping, at fault, unfortunate, abortive, addle, stillborn, fruitless, bootless, ineffectual, ineffective, inconsequential, trifling, nugatory, inefficient, insufficient, unavailing, of no effect, aground, grounded, swamped, stranded, cast away, wrecked, foundered, capsized, shipwrecked, nonsuited, foiled, defeated, struck down, borne down, broken down, downtrodden, overborne, overwhelmed, all up with, ploughed, plowed, plucked, lost, undone, ruined, broken, bankrupt, played out, done up, done for, dead beat, ruined root and branch, flambe, knocked on the head, destroyed, frustrated, crossed, unhinged, disconcerted dashed, thrown off one's balance, thrown on one's back, thrown on one's beam ends, unhorsed, in a sorry plight, hard hit, stultified, befooled, dished, hoist on one's own petard, victimized, sacrificed, wide of the mark, out of one's reckoning, left in the lurch, thrown away, unattained, uncompleted, unsuccessfully, to little or no purpose, in vain, re infecta, the bubble has burst, the jig is up, the game is up, all is lost, the devil to pay, parturiunt montes, dies infaustus, tout est perdu hors l'honneur.