Food was short/less

Question

HiI want natural expressions for these situations. Are the sentences OK?[embarrassed host]I was so embarrassed at the party because the food became very short/less.and/orI was so embarrassed to note that everyone was eating smallish amounts because that could see that the food was considerably short/less.Thanks,Tom

Clive · Accepted Answer

eg We were running out of food.

Mr. Tom · Answer

Thanks, Clive.

Can I request some more light on the sentences I gave? I mean, can we use these two phrases?

1) something became short/less

She suddenly realized that tea/food had become too short/less for the rest of the guests.
If the kids continue to take dessert this way, it will sure become short/less before the guests arrive.

eat smallish amounts

Once they realized that there was not much to go round, they started to eat smallish amounts.

Thanks again,

Tom

PS: By the way, isn't there any expression/idiom in English which means "to deliberately eat little because you know there is not enough to go round"? In my language, there is a beautiful expression whose literal translation would be something like this: "to eat with one's hands tied/handcuffed"

Clive · Answer

Can I request some more light on the sentences I gave? I mean, can we use these two phrases?

1) something became short/less

She suddenly realized that tea/food had become too short/less for the rest of the guests.
If the kids continue to take dessert this way, it will sure become short/less before the guests arrive.

The above expressions are not idiomatic, not good.
We can say
eg we were getting short / running short of food
eg we were running out of food

eat smallish amounts This sounds OK

Once they realized that there was not much to go round, they started to eat smallish amounts.

Thanks again,

Tom

PS: By the way, isn't there any expression/idiom in English which means "to deliberately eat little because you know there is not enough to go round"? In my language, there is a beautiful expression whose literal translation would be something like this: "to eat with one's hands tied/handcuffed"
Maybe there is one, but I can't think of anything offhand.

Khoff · Answer

I've read the phrase "family hold back " (so there is more for the guests) but it's not very common.

Mr. Tom · Answer

After reading Khoff's post, I googled and found this.

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=837792

Tom

Clive · Answer

I've never heard that in my life!<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/7.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/7.gif' alt='Emotion: tongue tied'/>

Food was short/less

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