shrug off
Britishverb
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to minimize the importance of; dismiss
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to get rid of
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to wriggle out of or push off (clothing)
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Minimize the importance of, as in That nasty review didn't bother him at all; he just shrugged it off . [Early 1900s]
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Get rid of, as in She managed to shrug off her drowsiness and keep driving . [Mid-1900s]
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Wriggle out of a garment, as in He shrugged off his coat . [First half of 1900s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A decision by major crude producers over the weekend to lift output by 206,000 barrels per day starting in April appeared to be largely shrugged off by the oil market.
From MarketWatch
“The word you are looking for is driven. That Cocoon put everything I’d worked so hard for in jeopardy, so it was pretty easy to shrug off.”
From Literature
The sweet, slightly feral smell of soil shrugging off ice.
From Salon
The Chamber of Deputies shrugged off a general strike by weakened unions to pass its version 135-115 on Feb. 19.
From Barron's
Nvidia stock was rising ahead of the open Monday as it appeared set to shrug off pressure across the tech sector.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
