Shrug off means to treat something as unimportant and move on, as if with a shrug of the shoulders. She shrugged off the criticism: she didn't let it knock her down. Usually it's praise for resilience, but shrug off responsibility is a complaint: the person brushes aside what they should be doing.
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shrug off criticism / a setback; shrug something off; shrug it off
- She shrugged off the criticism and continued rehearsing.
- The team shrugged off the early setback.
- He tried to shrug the comment off, but it clearly bothered him.
What changed
First versionShe shrugged off it and returned to work.
RevisionShe shrugged it off and returned to work.
We say ignore it or forget it, with the pronoun at the end, so shrugged off it seems natural. But with a phrasal verb a short pronoun goes inside: shrugged it off. A noun can go either way: shrug off the comment, shrug the comment off.
Ignore means act as if nothing happened. Shrug off means notice it but refuse to let it matter. Get over means recover, which can take a long time: she shrugged off the comment, but it took her weeks to get over the breakup.
Your turn
Choose the correct pronoun position: The remark was rude, but he decided to ___.
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shrug it off — In shrug off, the pronoun it goes between shrug and off: shrug it off.
Describe a rude comment or setback that someone brushed aside before carrying on.
Lena shrugged off the teasing and presented her design to the group.
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