How to Use shrug in a Sentence

shrug

1 of 2 verb

• I asked if he wanted to go out to dinner, and he just shrugged.
• He just shrugged his shoulders.
• The camera then panned to the actress, who smirked and shrugged.
  — Jolene Latimer, Peoplemag, 20 Apr. 2023
• And Raquel said, ‘Sandoval has abs’ and kind of shrugged.
  — William Earl, Variety, 6 Mar. 2023
• And Jenny turned to me, smiled and shrugged, as if to say, case closed.
  — Robert Kolker, New York Times, 20 July 2023
• The Padres have little option but to try to shrug it off.
  — Bruce Orwall, WSJ, 14 Aug. 2022
• Lila tries to shrug it off, but there’s no fooling Five.
  — Rachel Paige, refinery29.com, 3 Aug. 2020
• When Lionel went back to the shoemaker, the old man shrugged.
  — Dave Eggers, The Atlantic, 12 Aug. 2023
• Still, this doesn't mean that people should shrug and give up.
  — Cathleen O'Grady, Ars Technica, 28 May 2020
• Those who don’t like the Olympics, shrug it off as unimportant.
  — Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 June 2021
• Over the last two years, when asked about chasing the No. 1 seed, Bucks players have shrugged it off.
  — Jim Owczarski, Journal Sentinel, 23 Mar. 2023
• When asked if the A.I. would replace him entirely one day, the artist shrugged.
  — Zachary Small, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2023
• But at least a few others shrugged it off as a smart business move.
  — Victor Mather, New York Times, 22 Nov. 2023
• Do not shrug your shoulders and wave your hands that this is somehow just the vagaries of AI.
  — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 1 June 2021
• The coach shrugged and pointed to a group of kids, and Nick happily scampered away.
  — Ron Kroichick, SFChronicle.com, 6 Dec. 2019
• Soon, coworker David Allen lifted the lid off the vat, saw much the same and likewise shrugged it off.
  — cincinnati.com, 17 Mar. 2020
• In contrast, Basha for her part merely shrugged and said, Why not?
  — Tova Reich, Harper's Magazine, 11 Dec. 2023
• One way to make sense of this weak jobs report is to do what Wall Street did and shrug it off as an anomaly.
  — Author: Heather Long, Anchorage Daily News, 8 May 2021
• West led the jack of spades, and declarer won, took the ace of trumps, shrugged and led a club to finesse with dummy’s king.
  — Frank Stewart, The Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2024
• Then, the Queen looks over at Princess Anne, who shrugs, smiles, and says something inaudible.
  — Caroline Hallemann, Town & Country, 4 Dec. 2019
• Travis shrugs it off, saying that everyone has a role to play.
  — Radhika Menon, ELLE, 30 Mar. 2023
• Don’t shrug it off, saying this is for others to worry about.
  — Ken Silverstein, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2024
• Tennessee simply shrugged and Smith made a juggling catch in the left corner of the end zone.
  — Barry Wilner, The Courier-Journal, 12 Jan. 2020
• Fore, noticing the surprise on my face, shrugs her shoulders and starts laughing.
  — Khushbu Shah, Bon Appétit, 7 Nov. 2019
• But when the store at the Arlington, Virginia, mall opened at 6 a.m., an employee rolled up the gate to the first floor entrance and shrugged.
  — Author: Abha Bhattarai, Anchorage Daily News, 29 Nov. 2019
• Unlike so many other things, France wasn’t prepared to shrug this one off.
  — Joshua Robinson, WSJ, 4 Dec. 2022
• The country shrugged because, well, this is Chicago, and if the new mayor doesn’t care, why should anyone else?
  — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 31 May 2023
• You might be tempted to merely shrug your shoulders and say that people will often do the darnedest things.
  — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 25 Apr. 2022
• Asked what his success in this one-of-a-kind role might mean for his future beyond 2023, Pivetta shrugged.
  — Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Aug. 2023
• Asked about deGrom’s day, Bruce Bochy’s first instinct was to turn his palms upward and kind of shrug his shoulders.
  — Evan Grant, Dallas News, 25 Mar. 2023

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shrug

2 of 2 noun

• For much of the world, these Games passed by with a shrug.
  — New York Times, 20 Feb. 2022
• At the mention of this, Reid rolls her eyes and shrugs.
  — Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, 25 Apr. 2023
• The wives would sort of shrug or nod, and the men would take off their jackets.
  — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 4 Dec. 2023
• That brought little more than a shrug from the No. 1 player in the world.
  — Tim Bielik, cleveland, 9 Apr. 2022
• The sign-and-trade deal with the Bulls was greeted with either a shrug or a smirk.
  — Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 2 Apr. 2022
• But, like the team records on both sides that kept falling, the win comes with a bit of a shrug.
  — Dan Gelston, orlandosentinel.com, 9 Jan. 2022
• The Browns get a shrug of a draft pick and pay Mayfield $10.5 million to not play for them.
  — Dan Labbe, cleveland, 6 July 2022
• The response by the rest of the team was pretty much a collective shrug.
  — Jeff Fedotin, Forbes, 3 June 2021
• Cars get blown up, flipped over, and thrown down stairs, and people emerge from them with a shrug.
  — Kyle Smith, National Review, 7 July 2021
• But my friends and cousins, like so many Latino Dodgers fans, shrug about all that.
  — Los Angeles Times, 23 Sep. 2021
• Alas, the computer gives the 0s-and-1s equivalent of a shrug as to which film that might be.
  — Ben Zauzmer, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Feb. 2022
• And perhaps a shrug – or two, or three – will be in order from Smith.
  — oregonlive, 26 Aug. 2023
• Matthew doesn’t speak but can grimace, shrug, grunt, nod, or frown.
  — Weike Wang, The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2022
• Rather than default to a gift card with a shrug, grab something off this list.
  — Anthony Karcz, Forbes, 12 Dec. 2021
• Slights that might once have upset him now elicit no more than a shrug.
  — Time, 7 Dec. 2022
• That was the sad-shrug manner the larger Hard Rock Stadium took it by then.
  — Dave Hyde, sun-sentinel.com, 18 Sep. 2021
• These images could portray a shrug, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, or a rose, @>—>—, in a single line.
  — Sheera Frenkel, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2023
• The mice greet this with a shrug, mouth vague platitudes, and go on the talk-show circuit anyway.
  — Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker, 21 Aug. 2023
• But once that raise becomes a shrug upward, the traps take the emphasis away from the shoulders.
  — Jeff Tomko, Men's Health, 11 Aug. 2022
• She’ll chuckle, shrug and jokingly blame it on the wind.
  — Greg Riddle, Dallas News, 7 May 2021
• There was no nod or smile or shrug, no wince or frown or slumped shoulders - only a blank face.
  — Meg Kissinger, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11 Aug. 2021
• But that is little reason to shrug and say that five untested days is enough.
  — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 8 Jan. 2022
• Sanders asked with a shrug, indicating the boxes of books around him.
  — Palak Jayswal, The Salt Lake Tribune, 22 Sep. 2022
• With a slight shrug of his shoulders and a knowing nod of having done this before.
  — Patrick Z. McGavin, Chicago Tribune, 30 Nov. 2022
• Always looking at the clock midday and anticipating the door opening, the sigh, the smile, the laugh, the shrug.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 5 Aug. 2021
• When Warren left to run the Chicago Bears last spring, his departure was met with a shrug.
  — Zach Osterman, The Indianapolis Star, 26 July 2023
• To strengthen those, the heavy shrug is a great exercise for building up the upper traps and supporting the bar and weight of the load.
  — Emily Shiffer, Men's Health, 25 Jan. 2022
• With a final shrug, Frank took his roller and blotted out the graffiti rat with thick, beige stripes.
  — Washington Post, 12 Nov. 2021
• Afterwards, the 7-foot-3 inch center smiled and gave a good-humored shrug.
  — Anna Lazarus Caplan, Peoplemag, 21 June 2023
• There are tube tops with her classic open seams, a curve-hugging sheer maxi dress, and a saucy midriff-baring shrug.
  — Liana Satenstein, Vogue, 30 July 2021

Last Updated: 3 May 2024