From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbe found wantingbe found wantingformalGOOD ENOUGH to not be good enough Their defence was found wanting. → find
Examples from the Corpus
be found wanting• The policy has been severely tested over the last 16 months and has been found wanting.• Both were confidently given and both were found wanting.• Faced with these twin assaults on his ego it was hardly surprising that many players were found wanting.• Improvements can be made in the light of performance and composers may discard or destroy compositions which are found wanting.• With the result that pure deduction is found wanting.• The toilets were found wanting as well.• When the match was found wanting, he was able to proceed to non-spherical planets, and so on.• It's a long time since Donegal were found wanting in so many key areas.• Until Nikos was found wanting Owen would continue to trust him.