short shrift, to get/give

give short shrift

To ignore, disregard, or exclude (someone or something); to give (someone or something) very little time or attention. A noun or pronoun can be used between "give" and "short." As the middle child with a troublesome older brother and a needy younger sister, I felt like I was given short shrift growing up. Despite its urgency, ministers are giving the issue short shrift in parliament.

short shrift

A minimal amount of time, attention, or consideration given to someone. (Typically used in the phrases "give/get short shrift.") Despite the urgency of the problem, the minister's proposed solutions are getting short shrift in parliament. As the middle child with a troublesome older brother and a needy younger sister, I felt like I was given short shrift growing up.

short shrift

a brief period of consideration of a person's ideas or explanations. They gave the reporter short shrift and got him out of the office. My plan got short shrift from the board—a ten-minute presentation; they then voted it down.

short shrift

rapid and unsympathetic dismissal; curt treatment.

Shrift literally denotes penance imposed after confession to a priest, and historically short shrift referred to a very brief allowance of time between condemnation and execution or other punishment.

2002 Art in America Edward Strickland's Minimalism: Origins , published in 1993 , gives surprisingly short shrift to the Minimalists of the 1960s.

short shrift, to get/give

To spend little time on. The term comes from the days when confessing to a priest was a virtually universal practice. Shrift meant not only the confession but also the penance or absolution given by the priest following confession. In Shakespeare’s Richard III, Ratclif, ordered by Gloucester (later Richard III) to have Hastings beheaded, says to him, “Come, come, dispatch; the duke would be at dinner: make a short shrift, he longs to see your head.” It began to be used more loosely in succeeding centuries, as in the quotation under look daggers at.