get short shrift

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get short shrift

To be or feel ignored, disregarded, or excluded; to get very little time or attention. As the middle child with a troublesome older brother and a needy younger sister, I felt like I got short shrift growing up. Despite the urgency of the problem, the minister's proposed solutions are getting short shrift in parliament.

get short shrift

COMMON If someone or something gets short shrift, they are treated very rudely or given very little attention. Unfortunately, these proposals are likely to get short shrift from the government. Anyone who complains will get short shrift from me. Note: You can also say that someone gives someone or something short shrift. When I was a waitress I gave short shrift to customers who got on my nerves. Such objections are likely to be given short shrift by the committee. Note: `Shrift' is an old word meaning confession to a priest. In the past, condemned criminals were allowed only a few minutes to make their confession before they were executed.

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.