noun

• 1Rapid and unsympathetic dismissal; curt treatment.

  ‘the judge gave short shrift to an argument based on the right to free speech’

  More example sentences

  • ‘A few thought I gave short shrift to the value of biodiversity in medicine.’
  • ‘Woodward also gave short shrift to the rumoured spat between Larder and O'Sullivan.’
  • ‘Each character has his or her own painful story, and none are given short shrift in this treatment.’
  • ‘Foundation hospitals were given short shrift.’
  • ‘In 1986, crime victims got short shrift from the justice system.’
  • ‘Such behaviour can only receive short shrift to the fruit of democracy Zambians have only just started enjoying.’
  • ‘That way, the neighbor won't be expecting an endorsement, and the opponent won't fear he will be given short shrift.’
  • ‘Antiwar sentiments, however vague, were given short shrift.’
  • ‘But are they being too ‘liberal’ in their attitudes - to the extent of giving short shrift to their mother tongue?’
  • ‘Hansen said his people are still given short shrift.’
  • ‘He does not give short shrift to the slavery issue.’
  • ‘In general, philosophy, history, and policy got short shrift in teacher-preparation courses, the paper said.’
  • ‘But Leonard, who travelled to New Zealand in 1993 and South Africa four years ago, gives the men in suits short shrift.’
  • ‘Are arguments about the First Amendment getting short shrift?’
  • ‘Such speculation gets short shrift from Michael Henderson.’
  • ‘Will the networks continue to give short shrift to the international stories so prized by the globetrotting correspondent?’
  • ‘But the downside is sometimes we give short shrift to everything else.’
  • ‘But these got short shrift in Luxembourg last Wednesday.’
  • ‘Quite a few of them, especially the officers who represented the military elite, hated the Bolsheviks because they saw them as giving short shrift to the state.’

• 2archaic Little time between condemnation and execution or punishment.