Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) lack of or insufficiency; usu. of money.

1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1938		D. Runyon ‘A Very Honorable Guy’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 416: He is always owing [...] I never see him but what he is troubled with the shorts.
1943		R.L. Bellem ‘Dead Man’s Shakedown’ in Dan Turner Detective Mar. 🌐 She kept her yap zippered about it until [...] she found herself with the financial shorts.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 15: I’m suffering with the shorts.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 169: I was dead beat, troubled with the shorts; not penny one did I have.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 21: He costs them money, always suffering from the ‘shorts’.
1957		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 9 Nov. 1: [of a lack of response] Jackie Robinson and Franklin H. Williams are running into the ‘shorts’ trying to get some of Harlem’s internationally famous [...] Set to get up off the wherewithal [etc] .
1959		Hattiesburg American (MS) 5 Jan. 10/1: Notre Dame [...] certainly didn’t suffer the shorts as far as fullbacks were concerned.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 171: Louis’s got the ‘shorts,’ and a friend of mine wants me to give him two hundred.
1970		Hartford Courant (CT) 15 May 35/3: [headline] Honest John’s Store Still Suffers Shorts.
1973		M. Agar Ripping and Running 140: bi.: You got any ... bo.: You know I don’t go for no shorts. bi.: No. No, it’s cool. I got my bread together.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 111: We’ve got the shorts here, you know.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 110: A guy with the shorts can never get well taking an even break for his case dough.
2002		R. Gordon Can’t Be Satisfied 218: ‘Muddy had the shorts—he was living week to week’.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 1: All I could think about was [...] my due rent. Mom dukes ain’t taking no shorts.