for everything to be expensive; or, for there to be a shortage of things that are necessary (see Molina)
Orthographic Variants:
tlapatiotiua
Alonso de Molina:
tlapatiotiua. (pret. otlapatiotiuac.) valer todo caro o auer caristia y falta delas cosas necessarias. Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 131r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.