short end of the stick, to get/have the
*short end of the stick
Fig. the smaller or less desirable part, rank, task, or amount. (*Typically: get ~; have ~; give someone ~; end up with ~.) Why do I always get the short end of the stick? I want my fair share! She's unhappy because she has the short end of the stick again.
See also: end, of, short, stick
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
short end of the stick, to get/have the
To lose out; to get less than one is entitled to. Exactly what kind of stick is being referred to is no longer known, but possibly it is one used in fighting or in a tug-of-war, in which the person holding the longer end has the advantage. “He having gotten (as we say) the better end of the staffs, did wrest our wills at his pleasure,” wrote Thomas Jackson in 1626 (Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed). Around the turn of the twentieth century in America, “the short end” of anything came to mean the inferior part, and soon this was combined with “stick” to yield the current cliché. See also wrong end of the stick.
See also: end, get, have, of, short
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- give (one) the fig
- fall for something/someone, to
- go to one's head, to
- end of one's rope/tether, at the/come to the
- leaves
- set one's teeth on edge, to
- chip on one's shoulder, to have a
- take by storm, to
- clip someone's wings, to
- put one's foot in it/one's mouth, to