find wanting

find wanting (third-person singular simple present finds wanting, present participle finding wanting, simple past and past participle found wanting)

1. Show to be not good enough.

• Chiefly used in the passive voice: found wanting.

• “found wanting”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “tried and found wanting”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “be found wanting” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.