short shrift

Noun

short shrift (countable and uncountable, plural short shrifts)

1. (historical) A rushed sacrament of confession given to a prisoner who is to be executed very soon.
   • Diſpatch my Lo[rd] the Duke would be at dinner: / Make a ſhort ſhrift, he longs to ſee your head.c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC...
   • I pray you, tell my kind cousin, if he loves such companions, he had best keep them in his own estates; for here they are like to meet short shrift and a tight cord.1823, [Walter Scott], “The Envoy”, in Quentin Durward. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 213
2. (broadly, uncountable) Speedy execution, usually without any proper determination of guilt.
   • "Here is a spy of the enemy, General," said the Sergeant. / "Make short shrift of him! We have no time for court-martials now." / "He's been condemned already, sir. He's the same man that was rescued from under the gallows by Commodore Stout's men."1859, J[ohn] B[eauchamp] Jones, “The Invasion of the North”, in Border War; a Tale of Disunion, New York, N.Y.: Rudd & Carleton, […], →OCLC, page 182
   • Where actual disloyalty could be directly or constructively proved, the Crown made short shrift about surrenders, as in the case of those houses which were implicated in the Pilgrimage of Grace: the monks were tied up to the nearest beam, the abbots condemned to the halter and the butcher's knife...1868, John Henry Blunt, “The Dissolution of the Monasteries [a.d. 1535–a.d. 1545]”, in The Reformation of the Church of England: Its History, Principles, and Results: [a.d. 1514–a.d. 1547], London...
3. (broadly, countable) A short interval of relief or time.
   • Short were his shrift in that debate, / That hour of fury and of fate, / If Lorn encounter'd Bruce![1815, Walter Scott, “Canto Fifth”, in The Lord of the Isles, a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F]or Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co....
4. (figuratively, uncountable) Sometimes preceded by the: a quick dismissal or rejection, especially one which is impolite and undertaken without proper consideration.
   • The bank gave me short shrift when I applied for a loan.
   • The proposal got short shrift.
5. (dated, figuratively, uncountable) Something dealt with or overcome quickly and without difficulty; something made short work of.
   • [L]ast week that scoundrel of a factor went to the hut with two of his men and seized the cow because they couldn't pay the rent—said his lordship advised him to give short shrift, since indulgence did not pay—that he himself was in want of money for his travels, and must get the rents of Uribol.1881, Robert [Williams] Buchanan, “Mina’s Questions”, in A Child of Nature. A Romance. […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Richard Bentley and Son, […], →OCLC, page 188
   • The moral sense of the world would have been shocked at the spectacle of a vulgar commonplace ruffian who, in a public railway saloon, publicly shot the chief magistrate of the United States, in the presence of a Cabinet minister and a number of spectators. Taken in the very fact, with his smoking...1882 March 8, “Notes on Current Topics. Law and Physic.”, in The Medical Press and Circular. […], London; Dublin: [s.n.] […], →OCLC, page 210, column 1