Use of "nothing short of"

Question

Hi, everybodyI'm aware of an expression "nothing short of" and I think that as a rule people use it this way:1. He's nothing short of an idiot.I wonder if I can take the expression even further, and say something along the lines of:2. He's doing nothing short of robbing me of my dignity.Could you tell me if the above sentences are OK ?Thanks a bunch !

Avangi · Accepted Answer

I would not hesitate to use such a sentence. One may usually use a gerund or gerundive phrase in place of a noun.

In fact, with a being verb, you may also use an adjective complement. "His performance was nothing short of amazing."

I suppose the "being verb" format is actually more common: "What he's doing is nothing short of robbery."
"What he's doing is nothing short of robbing me of my dignity."

I'm not 100% sure of the grammar. I suspect the phrase is considered adjectival:
He's taken my life's savings.
He's taken my savings.
He's taken all my savings.
He's taken all my life's savings.
He's taken nothing short of my life's savings.

I'm just worrying that someone might tell me it acts as a preposition. We shall see.

- A.

Yankee · Answer

Hi Alex

1. A commonly used format would include the verb "be" (in whatever tense is appropriate):
be nothing short of

You start off with a sentence structure like this:
X = Y.
(X would typically be a noun or the equivalent, and Y would typically be another noun or an adjective, the equal sign is the verb "be". In addition, Y is typically something that is already some sort of an extreme.)

To add emphasis, you simply insert "nothing short of" after the equal sign (the verb "be"):
X = nothing short of Y.

- The rescue was a miracle. --> The rescue was nothing short of a miracle.

- What happened was a miracle. --> What happened was nothing short of a miracle.
("What happened" takes the place of X.)

- What he is doing is scandalous. --> What he is doing is nothing short of scandalous.
("What he is doing" takes the place of X.)

- That he has survived is miraculous. --> That he has survived is nothing short of miraculous.
("That he has survived" takes the place of X.)

- Four more years of Bush would have been a catastrophe. --> Four more years of Dubya would have been nothing short of a catastrophe.
("Four more years of Bush" takes the place of X. And in this sentence, "four more years of" suggests "re-election of")

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2. You can also use "nothing short of" at the beginning of a sentence with a meaning of "only" or "nothing except"):

- Nothing short of a miracle will help him. (only a miracle/nothing except a miracle)
- Nothing short of screaming ever gets his attention. (only screaming/nothing except screaming)

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To me, your second sentence is a little off, and I think it's mainly because it seems to be attempting to mix patterns 1 and 2 above, but probably also because pattern (1) is so very common.

MrPernickety2. He's doing nothing short of robbing me of my dignity.

Just as Avangi suggested, I would probably reword it using "be" to get it back to the X=Y "equation" format:
- What he's doing is nothing short of robbing me of my dignity.

Use of "nothing short of"

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