shrugged; shrugging
: to raise or draw in the shoulders especially to express aloofness, indifference, or uncertainty
: to lift or contract (the shoulders) especially to express aloofness, indifference, or uncertainty
Examples of shrug in a Sentence
Verb
I asked if he wanted to go out to dinner, and he just shrugged.
He just shrugged his shoulders.
Recent Examples on the Web
Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2024
Only one police officer pops up there, a smiley nincompoop who sucks down children’s birthday cake from behind a desk and shrugs his way through conversation.
—Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 11 Mar. 2024
Some give vague answers, while others shrug before offering one name.
—Stephanie Yang, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2024
In response, Young K shrugs humorously in confusion, just as Dowoon brings up his Toronto motif again.
—Jenna Wang, Peoplemag, 25 Mar. 2024
The shrugging reaction to the latter's death sums up this season's flaws, unfortunately.
—Darren Franich, EW.com, 29 Feb. 2024
While other researchers immediately disagreed with them, their work and the lack of clear cause for the disease meant that a lot of doctors were comfortable shrugging it off as totally psychosomatic.
—Claire Maldarelli, Popular Science, 14 Feb. 2024
While the Kansas City Chiefs will spend Sunday in Las Vegas during Super Bowl LVII at Allegiant Stadium seeking their first dynasty, the San Francisco 49ers will shrug along those lines.
—Terence Moore, Forbes, 11 Feb. 2024
The 17-year-old shrugged it off and went on to pile up 26 team points, highlighted by a record-setting time in the 55 dash, to lead the Woodlawn girls track team to its first Baltimore County championship.
—Glenn Graham, Baltimore Sun, 6 Feb. 2024
Paula Mejía, The Atlantic, 11 Apr. 2024
But in the West Bank, the incoming figures were greeted with shrugs.
—Adam Taylor, Washington Post, 28 Mar. 2024
The New York/New Jersey utility behemoth—with 3.6 million electric customers and 1.1 million gas consumers—shrugs when the rest of the market tanks.
—Brett Owens, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024
On Wednesday, the news was met mostly with shrugs in Galway, in Ireland’s west, where many hadn’t even heard the news of Mr. Varadkar’s departure.
—Megan Specia, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2024
Outside of City Hall and police headquarters, the chief’s search is being met with shrugs.
—Libor Jany, Los Angeles Times, 16 Feb. 2024
In almost any field beside men’s sports, this might be met with a shrug.
—Billy Witz, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2024
Now, eight years later, after Utah passed a similar bill on Monday, the reaction beyond the state’s borders appears to be more of a shrug.
—Matt Lavietes, NBC News, 3 Feb. 2024
But his departure to Oregon elicited mostly shrugs because Garbers simply outperformed him.
—Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2023
Verb
Spektor proposed that, in an era of global competition, Western governments and policymakers need to reckon more positively with accusations of hypocrisy, rather than simply shrugging them off.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2024
Only one police officer pops up there, a smiley nincompoop who sucks down children’s birthday cake from behind a desk and shrugs his way through conversation.
—Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 11 Mar. 2024
Some give vague answers, while others shrug before offering one name.
—Stephanie Yang, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2024
In response, Young K shrugs humorously in confusion, just as Dowoon brings up his Toronto motif again.
—Jenna Wang, Peoplemag, 25 Mar. 2024
The shrugging reaction to the latter's death sums up this season's flaws, unfortunately.
—Darren Franich, EW.com, 29 Feb. 2024
While other researchers immediately disagreed with them, their work and the lack of clear cause for the disease meant that a lot of doctors were comfortable shrugging it off as totally psychosomatic.
—Claire Maldarelli, Popular Science, 14 Feb. 2024
While the Kansas City Chiefs will spend Sunday in Las Vegas during Super Bowl LVII at Allegiant Stadium seeking their first dynasty, the San Francisco 49ers will shrug along those lines.
—Terence Moore, Forbes, 11 Feb. 2024
The 17-year-old shrugged it off and went on to pile up 26 team points, highlighted by a record-setting time in the 55 dash, to lead the Woodlawn girls track team to its first Baltimore County championship.
—Glenn Graham, Baltimore Sun, 6 Feb. 2024
Noun
Larry David ended the series in the most fitting way possible: not with a bang, but with a shrug.
—Paula Mejía, The Atlantic, 11 Apr. 2024
But in the West Bank, the incoming figures were greeted with shrugs.
—Adam Taylor, Washington Post, 28 Mar. 2024
The New York/New Jersey utility behemoth—with 3.6 million electric customers and 1.1 million gas consumers—shrugs when the rest of the market tanks.
—Brett Owens, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024
On Wednesday, the news was met mostly with shrugs in Galway, in Ireland’s west, where many hadn’t even heard the news of Mr. Varadkar’s departure.
—Megan Specia, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2024
Outside of City Hall and police headquarters, the chief’s search is being met with shrugs.
—Libor Jany, Los Angeles Times, 16 Feb. 2024
In almost any field beside men’s sports, this might be met with a shrug.
—Billy Witz, New York Times, 8 Mar. 2024
Now, eight years later, after Utah passed a similar bill on Monday, the reaction beyond the state’s borders appears to be more of a shrug.
—Matt Lavietes, NBC News, 3 Feb. 2024
But his departure to Oregon elicited mostly shrugs because Garbers simply outperformed him.
—Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'shrug.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near shrug
Cite this Entry
“Shrug.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shrug. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
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