shrift
pronunciation
How to pronounce shrift in British English:
UK [ʃrɪft]
How to pronounce shrift in American English:
US [ʃrɪft]
-
- Noun:
- the act of being shriven
Word Origin
- shrift
- shrift: see shrive
- shrift (n.)
- Old English scrift "confession to priest, followed by penance and absolution," verbal noun from scrifan "to impose penance," from an early Germanic borrowing of Latin scribere "to write" (see script (n.)) that produced nouns for "penance, confession" in Old English and Scandinavian (such as Old Norse skrjpt "penance, confession"), but elsewhere in Germanic is used in senses "writing, scripture, alphabet letter;" see shrive. Short shrift originally was the brief time for a condemned criminal to confess before execution (1590s); figurative extension to "little or no consideration" is first attested 1814.
Example
- 1. His own personal failures are also given short shrift .
- 2. Those who seek asylum also receive short shrift .
- 3. The bill also gave short shrift to most other clean energy programs .
- 4. That possibility when applied to china is given short shrift .
- 5. Victims of official wrongdoing often make such trips , and usually they are given short shrift .