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Short Shrift
If you give a person Short Shrift you dismiss their opinions or feelings without much consideration. "Shrift" derives from the verb "shrive" meaning "to hear a confession, and its past tense is "shrove" as in Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent when pious people attend confession, and means a confession given to a priest, after which absolution is given. During the 1600s, when criminals were executed almost straight after the sentence was passed, they were given a few seconds to save their souls by confessing their sins to a waiting priest. This would usually be on the gallows platform with time being short, and this is how the phrase "short shrift"entered the language.
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