Shrug

noun, verb

noun, verb ·1 syllable ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A lifting of the shoulders to signal indifference or a casual lack of knowledge.

    "He dismissed my comment with a shrug."

  2. 2
    a gesture involving the shoulders wordnet
  3. 3
    A cropped, cardigan-like garment with short or long sleeves, typically knitted.
Verb
  1. 1
    To raise (the shoulders) to express uncertainty, lack of concern, (formerly) dread, etc. ambitransitive

    "I asked him for an answer and he just shrugged."

  2. 2
    raise one's shoulders to indicate indifference or resignation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
acceptadjustbearingbeckbeckonbody language

Example

More examples

"She gave a shrug of the shoulders."

Etymology

From Middle English schruggen, shrukken, probably of North Germanic origin related to Danish skrugge, skrukke (“to stoop; crouch”), Swedish skruga, skrukka (“to huddle; crouch”), all from or related to Old Norse skrykkva, from Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną. Compare also Old English scrincan (“to shrink”). More at shrink.

Related phrases

macaroni shrugshrug offbody languagebody movementoh wellraised shouldersshoulder motionshoulder movementshoulders up

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.